| 释义 |
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.
1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) I. 159 [In Ethiopia] cattes of the mownteyne [pardi]. 1526Tindale Rev. xiii. 2 And the beast which I sawe was lyke a Catt off the Mountayne. 1598G. Gifford Disc. Relig. 134 The black Moore cannot change his hew, nor the cat of the mountaine her spots. 1701Lond. Gaz. No. 3708/4 On the Third is a Cat-amountant. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. III. 262 The Catamountain, or Ocelot, is one of the fiercest..animals in the world. 1840Ainsworth Tower of Lond. (1864) 163 Moustaches, bristling like the whiskers of a cat-a-mountain. 1865Carlyle 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.
1616Beaum. & Fl. Cust. Country i. i. 400 To a wild fellow that would worry her..To the rude claws of such a cat-o'-mountain. 1650A. B. Mutat. Polemo 14 To bragg (meerly on the dependance o' these crafty Catamountaines). 1842Lytton Zanoni iv. vi, These wild cats-a-mountain!
3. attrib.
1598Shakes. Merry W. ii. ii. 27 Your Cat-a-Mountaine-lookes, your red-lattice phrases. a1857Carlyle Misc. I. 29 Boisterous outlaws with huge whiskers, and the most cat-o'-mountain aspect. 1878H. M. Stanley Dark Cont. II. vii. 220 Animated with a ferocious cat-o-mountain spirit. |