Kittens handled gently when they are small, readily become affectionate pets. Not so
feral cats. I have two feral cats that I have fed often enough that they invite my
stroking them. But I would risk painful scratches if I tried to pick them up
Their mansuetude is limited.
mansuetude
n.
ME < L mansuetudo < pp. of mansuescere, to tame < manus, a hand (see MANUAL) + suescere, to accustom < IE base *swedh3, custom > Gr cthos6 gentleness; tameness
I tried to find out where my father's family hearkened from years ago, and traced it to the MacIntosh clan in Scotland. The motto for that clan was something like "Touch not the cat bot a glove." I suppose feral cats were the reference point here. I love the word bot here. Funny to consider what bot means today.
Bot regards,
WW
I have known tame cats with limited mansuetude.
The parasitic larva of a botfly?
In touch not the cat bot a glove, bot would best be translated as without. It comes from the OE butan which gave us our modern but but had other meanings.
Dear WW: I think the family motto uses "bot" to mean "but with". Here is a Scots poem
that uses "bot" clearly meaning same as English "but":
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/james1sc1b.html
wwh:
I'm going to paste the poem that was above the one with "bot" in it. Yes, long ago I figured out what the "bot" in question meant, and I think it's a mighty fine motto applied to cats and other kinds of cats you come across in this life. Touch 'em not without a glove.
Anyway, I love the poem above the one you have in the link. What a sadly beginning poem and some of the words are way beyond my understanding. What a lovely old language this:
204 Bewailing in my chamber thus allone,
205 Despeired of all joye and remedye,
206 For-tirit of my thoght, and wo begone,
207 Unto the wyndow gan I walk in hye,
208 To se the warld and folk that went forby;
209 As for the tyme, though I of mirthis fude
210 Myght have no more, to luke it did me gude.
211 Now was there maid fast by the touris wall
212 A gardyn faire, and in the corneris set
213 Ane herbere grene:--with wandis long and small
214 Railit about; and so with treis set
215 Was all the place, and hawthorn hegis knet,
216 That lyf was none walking there forby,
217 That myght within scarse ony wight aspye;
218 So thik the bewis and the leves grene
219 Beschadit all the aleyes that there were.
220 And myddis every herbere myght be sene
221 The scharpe grene suete jenepere,
222 Growing so faire with branchis here and there,
223 That, as it semyt to a lyf without,
224 The bewis spred the herbere all about;
225 And on the smalle grene twistis sat
226 The lytill suete nyghtingale, and song
227 So loud and clere, the ympnis consecrat
228 Off lufis use, now soft, now lowd among,
229 That all the gardyng and the wallis rong
230 Ryght of thaire song and of the copill next
231 Off thaire suete armony, and lo the text:
Wonder what the adjective form is? Too lazy tonight--or just plain too beat--to LIU.
Mansuetudinous? Mansuetundinal?
like, whoa! like, total mansuetudinage, dood...
And then there's the Yorkshire pronunciation:
Wheear 'as ta bin sin ah saw thee,
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at?!
Wheear 'as ta bin sin ah saw thee?
Wheear 'as ta bin sin ah saw thee?
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at?! http://www.ilkley.org/iguide/baht.htm
