猫

Glyph origin
.

Compounds

 * : beloved cat; love for cats
 * : a monster cat
 * : fully-grown cat
 * : tiger beetle
 * : cat's forehead, smallness as that of a cat's forehead
 * : cat's-eye
 * : civet

Etymology 1
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From. Cognate with 🇨🇬 via unknown Japonic substratum.

A comparison of accent patterns between the dialects shows some confusion (see dialectal data):
 * One group of dialects behaves as if  was the Heian Kyoto accent pattern: many dialects with the Tokyo type accent, including the standard Japanese in Tokyo, pronounce this word with an  pitch pattern, and in some non-mainstream Keihan type dialects as well, this word has a corresponding  pitch pattern.
 * Another group of dialects behaves as if  was the Heian Kyoto accent pattern: the mainstream Keihan type dialects pronounce this word with an  pitch pattern, and in a few of the Tokyo type dialects, this word has a corresponding  pitch pattern.

As a result, this term is one example of words that have the same pitch accent pattern between Tokyo and Osaka/Kyoto. The confusion seems to be due to an impression that the term comes from a compound word origin.

One theory explains that neko is shortened from earlier, but neko has a first appearance in literature earlier than that for nekoma.

First attested in the  of 794.

Noun

 * 1)  a cat

Derived terms

 * , : a kitten
 * : a black cat
 * : civet
 * : Schrödinger's cat
 * : nekomimi
 * : a monster cat
 * : a calico cat
 * : nekomimi
 * : a monster cat
 * : a calico cat
 * : a calico cat
 * : a calico cat
 * : a calico cat
 * : a calico cat
 * : a calico cat
 * : a calico cat

Idioms

 * : "cat tongue", someone who is incapable of drinking or eating anything hot due to having an overly sensitive tongue
 * : pearls before swine
 * : feign innocence
 * : pearls before swine
 * : feign innocence
 * : feign innocence
 * : feign innocence
 * : feign innocence

Etymology 2
According to the, 931–938, is short for this word.

One theory describes the first mora  as onomatopoeia for the sound a cat makes (cf. ; compare ). The last two morae  might accord with if it were from, in the sense of "four-legged animal". The Heian Kyoto accent of this word is ; note that in compound words for species names, the pitch pattern may be simplified to <-HL> when the final element is a 2-mora noun (e.g., and the presence or absence of this phenomenon could explain the accent confusion in neko.

However, nekoma is first cited to 918 in the, while neko is first attested in 794.

Noun

 * 1)   a cat

Etymology
From.

Noun

 * 1) cat

Noun

 * 1) cat

Noun

 * 1) cat