catamount

English

WOTD – 2 March 2021

Etymology

A cougar or puma (Puma concolor; sense 1) is also called a catamount in the United States.

Clipping of catamountain (“leopard, panther; ocelot; man living in the mountains”), from Late Middle English catamountain, from Middle English catte of the mountayne, cate of þe mounttaynne (“leopard, panther”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkætəmaʊnt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkætəˌmaʊnt/, [-ɾə-]
• Hyphenation: cat‧a‧mount

Noun

catamount (plural catamounts)

1. (US) A wild animal of the family Felidae, especially the cougar, mountain lion or puma (Puma concolor).
   • 1920, Peter B[ernhard] Kyne, chapter VIII, in The Understanding Heart, Toronto, Ont.: The Copp Clark Co., →OCLC, pages 144–145:

     Uncle Charley's voice was very soft and there was a weary note in it. "Great snarlin' catamounts, but I'm tired."

   • 1930, William Faulkner, “Darl”, in As I Lay Dying (Penguin Modern Classics), Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books in association with Chatto & Windus, published 1980, →ISBN, page 81:

     'He would have rid that horse, too,' pa says, 'if I hadn't a stopped him. A durn spotted critter wilder than a catty-mount. A deliberate flouting of her and me.'

2. (obsolete) Synonym of catamountain (“a leopard, a panther (Panthera pardus)”).

Alternative forms

• catty-mount (Southern US, dialectal)

Related terms

• catawampus (possibly)

Translations

wild animal of the Felidae family

• Italian: lince (it) f
• Korean: 들고양이 (ko) (deulgoyang'i), 살쾡이 (ko) (salkwaeng'i)
• Russian: дикая кошка f (dikaja koška)

Further reading

• cougar on Wikipedia.Wikipedia