Catamount
/ˈkæt.ə.maʊnt/noun
A wild cat, especially a cougar or other large feline living in mountainous regions.
Did you know?Catamount is a reshaped form of the older phrase “cat of the mountain,” historically used for large wild cats such as cougars and sometimes lynxes.
Etymological Timeline
Late Antiquity
Late Latin
cattus
“Cat; a widespread late Latin form probably borrowed from an earlier non-Indo-European source”
8th–10th Century
Old French
chat
“Cat”
Middle English
English
cat
“A domesticated feline; inherited through Old English from Germanic, ultimately related to Latin cattus”
16th Century
English
cat of the mountain
“A wild cat associated with mountainous country”
17th Century
English
catamount
“A compressed and altered form of “cat of the mountain””
Modern English
English
catamount
“A large wild cat, especially a cougar or mountain lion”