Meerkatze

German
FWOTD – 6 March 2015

Etymology

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
  • IPA(key): /ˈmeːrˌkatsə/, [ˈmeːɐ̯ˌkät͡sə], [ˈmɛɐ̯-]
  • Audio(file)

Noun

Meerkatze f (genitive Meerkatze, plural Meerkatzen)

  1. guenon (kind of monkey)
    • 1907, Friedrich Dahl, Versuche über den Farbensinn bei einer Meerkatze:

Usage notes
  • Not to be confused with English meerkat (“kind of mongoose”), the German word for which is Erdmännchen.

Declension
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

Derived terms

Further reading
  • “Meerkatze” in Duden online
  • “Meerkatze” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
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