Words with Webster: Kitten, Plus Friendly Fill-Ins

We have two fun Friday features for you today. First up is Real Cat Webster, who has a familiar word to share. After that, it’s on to Friendly Fill-Ins!

Words with Webster

Hi, everybody! It’s me, Real Cat Webster. Welcome to Words with Me. Today’s word is “kitten.” I picked this word because of the word(s) a few weeks ago, “Saturn’s Kittens.” At first I figured everybody knew what a kitten is, but then I thought, “What if someone doesn’t?” So, I looked in my favorite dictionary, Merriam-Webster’s, and it said a kitten is

a (1) :  a young cat  (2) :  a cat less than nine months old — used especially in relation to competitive showing
b :  an immature individual of various other small mammals

Then I went over to the Oxford English Dictionary, where I learned that “kitten” has been around for a really long time—over 600 years. With the meaning “a young cat,” the word first appeared in print (as far as we know) in 1377:

Þere þe catte is a kitoun þe courte is ful elyng. (William Langland, The vision of William concerning Piers Plowman)

Okaaay…

I thought we’d better move ahead about 200 years to Shakespeare:

I had rather be a kitten and cry mew, Then one of these same miter ballet mongers. (Henry IV, Pt 1 III.i.125, 1598)

That’s better; at least I understand the first part of that quote!

The English word “kitten” seems to have come from the Anglo-Norman “kitoun” or “ketun,” which is in turn from the Old French “chitoun” or “cheton,” an “obsolete variant of French ‘chaton.’”

Since it’s getting close to Halloween, I thought we should end with a black kitten, so here is a quote from Merlin, or The early history of King Arthur, from 1500, although the text was composed around 1450:

He caste his nett in to the water, and drough oute a litill kyton as blakke as eny cool.

Friendly Fill-Ins

And now it’s time for Friendly Fill-Ins, from 15andmeowing and McGuffy’s Reader. They are a fun way to learn a little bit about the authors of the blogs you read. The first two questions, answered by Real Cat Paisley this week, are from Ellen of 15andmeowing, and the next two, answered by old SoLT, are from Annie of McGuffy’s Reader.

Real Cat Paisley’s answers:

1. Keep calm and take naps. Obviously.

2. An empty food dish disappoints me.

Old SoLT’s answers:

3.  Peppermint tea is my favorite afternoon drink right now. The mintiness gives me a little boost that I need after lunch (when, let’s face it, it would be way more fun to take a nap than go back to work!).

4. In retrospect, I should have just given up a half hour ago and admitted that I don’t have a good response to this one!