Hebrew _h'atul_ vs. Arabic _qit't'_ (was Re: THEORY nouns and cases (was: Verbs derived from noun cases))

From: "Steg Belsky" <draqonfayir@...> (to me)

> > I'm looking up _qitt_ 'cat' in the online Arabic dictionary
> > (http://dictionary.ajeeb.com/); the verb _qatta_ means 'cut' or
> > 'trim', but
> > I doubt the words are related, since the word for 'cat' is probably a
> > loanword from a Nilo-Saharan language (as is English 'cat', French
> > _chat_,
> > German _Katz_, Spanish _gato_, Russian _kotec_ etc. etc. etc.).
> > Incidentally, Muhammad was a cat lover, according to legend.
>
> Hmm... that makes me wonder where the Hebrew term, |hhatul|
> (non-emphatic T), comes from.
חתול might be of Aramaic origin, but I can't find an online Aramaic
dictionary (just a Peshitta concordance) so I can't say. Or Akkadian maybe?
Anyway, I don't think it's related to Arabic قط since the 't' in the latter
is emphatic (I forgot to indicate that in my previous post).

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