Animals & plants

cat

Source:*kotъProto-Slavic · “tomcat”probable

*kotъ is an early loan, ultimately from Late Latin cattus; the exact route into Slavic (directly or through Germanic) is uncertain.

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English

cat

Polish

kot

kɔt

CognateSame source — the sound laws connect them.

In all five languages

BCS script

Latin under Cyrillic

Russian
ко́шкаkoška
ˈkoʂkəinherited
кот is the tomcat.
Ukrainian
кі́шкаkiška
ˈkʲiʃkainherited
кіт is the tomcat, with і in the closed syllable.
Polish
kot
kɔtinherited
Polish uses kot for any cat; kotka is a female.
Czech
kočka
ˈkotʃkainherited
Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian
mačkaмачка
ˈmatʃkadifferent word · from the call-word mac 'puss', shared with Romanian mâță
English
cat
English shares this source — Slavic *kotъ and English cat both come from Late Latin cattus.