Meerkatze
German edit
Etymology edit
From Middle High German merekatze, from Old High German merikazza (11th century); equivalent to Meer (“sea”) + Katze (“cat”). So called probably because they were brought to Europe over the sea from Africa. The restriction to the specific species is obviously not original, but a fairly recent scientific use. Adelung (ca. 1780) still defines it as referring to any long-tailed monkey. Compare Middle Dutch meercatte, whence eventually English meerkat.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
Meerkatze f (genitive Meerkatze, plural Meerkatzen)
- guenon (kind of monkey)
- 1907, Friedrich Dahl, Versuche über den Farbensinn bei einer Meerkatze:
Usage notes edit
- Not to be confused with English meerkat (“kind of mongoose”), the German word for which is Erdmännchen.
Declension edit
Declension of Meerkatze [feminine]
| singular | plural | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| indef. | def. | noun | def. | noun | |
| nominative | eine | die | Meerkatze | die | Meerkatzen |
| genitive | einer | der | Meerkatze | der | Meerkatzen |
| dative | einer | der | Meerkatze | den | Meerkatzen |
| accusative | eine | die | Meerkatze | die | Meerkatzen |