catamountain, cat o' mountain
(kætəˈmaʊntɪn, -əʊˈmaʊntɪn)
Forms: 5–7 cat of the mountain, 6–7 cat of mountain, 7–8 catamountain(e, (8 cat-amountant), 6– cat o mountain, 7– cat-a-mountain.
[app. of English formation: it does not appear that the ME. ‘cat of the mountain’ was a translation from another language.]
1. A name applied originally to the leopard or panther; by Goldsmith to the Ocelot (Felis pardalis), and by others to species of Tiger-cat.
| 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) I. 159 [In Ethiopia] cattes of the mownteyne [pardi]. 1526 Tindale Rev. xiii. 2 And the beast which I sawe was lyke a Catt off the Mountayne. 1598 G. Gifford Disc. Relig. 134 The black Moore cannot change his hew, nor the cat of the mountaine her spots. 1701 Lond. Gaz. No. 3708/4 On the Third is a Cat-amountant. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. III. 262 The Catamountain, or Ocelot, is one of the fiercest..animals in the world. 1840 Ainsworth Tower of Lond. (1864) 163 Moustaches, bristling like the whiskers of a cat-a-mountain. 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. VI. xvi. vii. 211 He springs upon the throat of Hirsch like a cat-o'-mountain. |
2. transf. A wild man from the mountains.
| 1616 Beaum. & Fl. Cust. Country i. i. 400 To a wild fellow that would worry her..To the rude claws of such a cat-o'-mountain. 1650 A. B. Mutat. Polemo 14 To bragg (meerly on the dependance o' these crafty Catamountaines). 1842 Lytton Zanoni iv. vi, These wild cats-a-mountain! |
3. attrib.
| 1598 Shakes. Merry W. ii. ii. 27 Your Cat-a-Mountaine-lookes, your red-lattice phrases. a 1857 Carlyle Misc. I. 29 Boisterous outlaws with huge whiskers, and the most cat-o'-mountain aspect. 1878 H. M. Stanley Dark Cont. II. vii. 220 Animated with a ferocious cat-o-mountain spirit. |