Feline Nomenclature

The ancient Egyptians used the onomatopoeic word miou the domestic cat, now reinstated in the modern breed name Egyptian Mau.

When cats first arrived in Greece they were called gale (the Greek name for polecats), while the Latin word felis was used to denote any yellowish carnivore, which included the weasel, the  polecat, and the cat.

By AD 100, the word katoikidios was attributed to the cat in Greek texts, and 200 years later cattus had supplanted felis in Latin. 

Variations of these words entered many other languages, including French with chat, Spanish  and Portuguese with gato, Italian with gatto, Swedish and Norwegian with katt, Dutch and Dutch with kat, German with katz, Czech  with kocka, and Russian with koshka.