Words with Webster: Digitigrade, Plus Friendly Fill-Ins

We have two fun Friday features for you today. First up is Real Cat Webster, who has a footsy 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 “digitigrade.” I picked this word because Mommy was looking up some stuff about cats and she found the word and couldn’t pronounce it (no, Mommy, it’s not “digigratitudey”!) and I thought that was funny. So I looked in my favorite dictionary (Merriam-Webster’s) and found out that our word means

(of an animal) walking upon the digits with the posterior part of the foot more or less raised.

In other words, it means walking on the toes. That is what cats do (and dogs and some other mammals too). The Oxford English Dictionary says it more plainly:

That walks on the toes.

The OED also says that “digitigrade” used to refer to

the former tribe Digitigrada of carnivorous mammals, including dogs, cats, mongooses, weasels, etc., whose members walk on their toes (obs.)

The tribe Digitigrada was part of French zoologist Georges Cuvier's classification system. Cuvier (1769-1832) studied paleontology and comparative anatomy and had an idea he called the "correlation of parts." This meant that the structure of one of an animal's organs was functionally related to all its other organs, and those structures and functions developed from how the animal interacted with the environment. Others thought it was the other way around: that an animal's anatomy dictated how it lived.*

Getting back to our word, it looks like "digitigrade" was first used in print in 1827. This quote is from 1833:

The legs also are completely digitigrade; that is to say, the heel is elevated, and does not come into contact with the surface... Digitigrade animals, which tread only upon the toes … have much longer legs than plantigrade animals. (Penny Cyclopedia I.4)

The English word “digitigrade” was borrowed directly from French and ultimately comes from the Latin digitus (“finger”) and -gradus (a suffix meaning “stepping, walking”).

So maybe one reason cats move so quietly is because we’re always walking on our tippy-toes!

This Siamese cat demonstrates the feline digitigrade walking technique.
Photo via Adobe Stock.

* "Georges Cuvier," Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Georges-Cuvier. 

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. When I am nervous, I hide somewhere safe and take a nap until I feel better.

2. When I am angry, I hiss at whoever ticked me off (usually Webster, because sometimes boys are just annoying).

Old SoLT’s answers:

3. Today, I know for sure that these days I’m more comfortable admitting I don’t know much than thinking I know anything for sure.

4. For St. Patrick’s day, I don’t usually do anything special. I don’t even wear green, and I am part Irish! I do think about my Irish ancestors and wish I knew more about them, but I do that even when it's not St. Paddy's Day.