Forms: 5–7 cat of the mountain, 6–7 cat of mountain, 7–8 catamountain(e, (8 cat-amountant), 6– cat o’ mountain, 7– cat-a-mountain. [app. of English formation: it does not appear that the ME. ‘cat of the mountain’ was a translation from another language.]
1. A name applied originally to the leopard or panther; by Goldsmith to the Ocelot (Felis pardalis), and by others to species of Tiger-cat.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), I. 159. [In Ethiopia] cattes of the mownteyne [pardi].
1526. Tindale, Rev. xiii. 2. And the beast which I sawe was lyke a Catt off the Mountayne.
1598. G. Gifford, Disc. Relig., 134. The Black Moore cannot change his hew, nor the cat of the mountaine her spots.
1701. Lond. Gaz., No. 3708/4. On the Third is a Cat-amountant.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., III. 262. The Catamountain, or Ocelot, is one of the fiercest … animals in the world.
1840. W. H. Ainsworth, Tower of London, 128. His immense grizzled moustaches, bristling like the whiskers of a cat-a-mountain.
1865. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., VI. XVI. vii. 211. He springs upon the throat of Hirsch like a cat-o’-mountain.
2. transf. A wild man from the mountains.
1616. Beaum. & Fl., Cust. Country, I. i. 400. To a wild fellow that would worry her … To the rude claws of such a cat-o’-mountain.
1650. A. B., Mutat. Polemo, 14. To bragg (meerly on the dependance o’ these crafty Cattamountaines).
1842. Lytton, Zanoni, IV. vi. These wild cats-a-mountain!
3. attrib.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., II. ii. 27. Your Cat-a-Mountaine-lookes, your red-lattice phrases.
a. 1857. Carlyle, Misc., I. 29. Boisterous outlaws with huge whiskers, and the most cat-o’-mountain aspect.
1878. H. M. Stanley, Dark Cont., II. vii. 220. Animated with a ferocious cat-o-mountain spirit.
