kitten
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kitten
- /ˈkɪtən̩/
- [kʰɪtn̩]
- [kʰɪʔn̩]
Rhymes with -ɪt(ə)n
Where it comes from
From Middle English kitoun, kytton, kyton, keton (“kitten”), of obscure origin. Seemingly from, and usually explained as being from, unattested Anglo-Norman *kitoun, *ketun (compare Old French chitoun, cheton, chaton (“kitten”), diminutive of cat, chat (“cat”)); whence Modern French chaton (“kitten”). Similar words of Germanic origin may have reinforced this word; compare English kitling (“kit, kitten”), Low German Kitten (“kitten”), Icelandic kettlingur (“kitten”), Middle English chitte ("whelp, pup", see chit). The idea that kitoun, rather than being of Anglo-Norman origin, was in fact a purely Germanic derivation from one of these words is etymologically problematic, but cannot be definitively ruled out.
noun kittens
- A young cat, especially before sexual maturity (reached at about seven months). It was supposed to have happened thus: the cat had young kittens, and frequently carried them mice, and other animals its prey, and among the rest a young rat: the kittens, not being hungry, played with it, and when the cat came to give suck to the kittens, the rat likewise sucked her.
- A young rabbit, rat, hedgehog, squirrel, fox, beaver, badger, etc. The first move at beaver raising in North Dakota had its starting in the fall of 1874, when a kitten beaver was taken out of Mandan Lake by the writer and given to a little Indian girl who then lived with her guardians at Pretty Point near the present village of Sanger, Oliver county.
- A moth of the genus Furcula. Two of these formed cocoons in a manner I have not seen before. They were supplied when full-grown with plenty of rotten willow wood, which I have always found a most suitable material for insects using bark or old wood in forming cocoons such as the kittens, Apatele alni, etc., and most made the us
- A term of endearment, especially for a woman. Speak only when spoken to, kitten.
- A girlfriend.
verb kittens · kittening · kittened
- To give birth to kittens. A cat about to kitten, must not be spoken of by its name, but called a witch. (Madagascar.)
