Etymology: In sense A. 1, < French tabis, earlier atabis (both 14th or early 15th cent. in Godefroy), Spanish tabi, Portuguese tabi, Italian tabi, medieval Latin attābi (M. Devic in Littré), apparently < Arabic ʿattābiy, name of a quarter of Bagdad in which this stuff was manufactured, named after ʿAttāb, great-grandson of Omeyya. Of this quarter Yule cites from an Arab writer of the 12th cent. ‘Here are made the stuffs, called ʿAttābīya, which are silks and cottons of divers colours’. The connection of the other senses is not very clear. Tabby cat , instanced in 1695, is generally held to have been so named from the striped or streaked colour of its coat. The simple tabby , in the same sense, is much later (1774). Tabby , old maid, is usually associated with tabby a cat; but it appears earlier, and may have originated as the familiar contraction of Tabitha (compare Abby for Abigail ), as an old-fashioned female name, and have become humorously associated with tabby cat . It is possible that tabby in the sense of she-cat originated in Tabby for Tabitha ; otherwise it is difficult to see any sense-connection between she-cat and brindled cat, since a tom-cat may also be brindled or striped. Sense A. 4 probably arose from resemblance to the markings of the tabby cat; the origin of sense A. 5 is very uncertain, and sense A. 6 may be a different word, though it may also have originated in a fancied resemblance of colour to that of the tabby cat.

Etymology: < tabby n.