tabby: [17] By a bizarre series of etymological twists and turns, the tabby cat commemorates a textile manufacturing suburb of Baghdad. This was al-‘Attābīya, named after Prince Attāb, who lived there. The cloth made there was known as ‘attābī, and the term passed via Old French atabis and modern French tabis into English as tabby. This originally denoted a sort of rich silk taffeta (‘This day … put on … my false tabby waistcoat with gold lace’ noted Samuel Pepys in his diary for 13 October 1661), but since such cloth was originally usually striped, by the 1660s the word was being applied to brindled cats.
tabby (n.)
1630s, "striped silk taffeta," from French tabis "a rich, watered silk" (originally striped), from Middle French atabis (14c.), from Arabic 'attabi, from 'Attabiyah, a neighborhood of Baghdad where such cloth was made, said to be named for prince 'Attab of the Omayyad dynasty. As an adjective from 1630s.
Tabby cat, one with a striped coat, is attested from 1690s; shortened form tabby first attested 1774. "The wild original of the domestic cat is always of such coloration" [Century Dictionary]. Sense of "female cat" (1826) may be influenced by the fem. proper name Tabby, a pet form of Tabitha, which was used in late 18c. as slang for "spiteful spinster, difficult old woman."
实用例句
1. She basked in the prosperity of the school like a purring tabby cat.
她就象个悠然自得的,咕噜咕噜叫的雌猫一样,沉浸在这所学校的繁荣昌盛之中.
来自辞典例句
2. Then I have four cats, Tabby and her three kittens.
所以我有四只猫了, 它们是斑猫和她的三个孩子.
来自互联网
3. The styles of the products include stripe, twill and tabby.
有条纹 、 平纹、格子多种款式.
来自互联网
4. A wise tabby, a blinking sphinx, watched from her warm sill.
