Some of the posts in this thread discussed cata in the sense of "down". Thanks to a little research, here are some further interesting examples.

cataclysm - lit. "to wash down."
Greek kata "down" + klyzein "to wash."

catalogue - lit. "to count down."
Greek katalogos "a list;" kata + legein "to say, count."

cataract - lit. "to smash down."
Greek katarhaktes "swooping, rushing down;" kata + arhattein "to strike hard."

catastrophe - lit. "downturn."
Greek katastrephein "to overturn;" kata + strephein "turn."

I immediately thought of the words when I saw the topic:

catamite: Definition: \Cat"a*mite\, n. [L. Catamitus, an old form of
Ganymedes Ganymede, Gr. ?.]
A boy kept for unnatural purposes.

SYLLABICATION: cat·a·mite
PRONUNCIATION: kt-mt
NOUN: A boy who has a sexual relationship with a man.
ETYMOLOGY: Latin catamtus, from Catamtus, Ganymede, from Etruscan Catmite, from Greek Ganumds.


I think the only time I've seen it was years ago in the novel Shogun--the English captain's response to a woman's sexual proposition was something like "what do you think I am, a catamite?"

catatonicfound in a definition of catatonia)

SYLLABICATION: cat·a·to·ni·a
PRONUNCIATION: kt-tn-
NOUN: An abnormal condition variously characterized by stupor, stereotypy, mania, and either rigidity or extreme flexibility of the limbs. It is most often associated with schizophrenia.
ETYMOLOGY: New Latin, from German Katatonie, from Greek katatonos, stretching tight, from katateinein, to stretch tight : kata-, intensive pref.; see cata– + teinein, to stretch; see ten- in Appendix I.
OTHER FORMS: cata·tonic (-tnk) —ADJECTIVE & NOUN


And catamountanother name for the mountain lion)

NOUN: Chiefly Western U.S. A large powerful wild cat (Felis concolor) of mountainous regions of the Western Hemisphere, having an unmarked tawny body. Also called catamount, mountain cat, panther, puma, Regional painter3. also called regionally Regional cougar

And, I think we can all see--I'll need to learn to puncuate better around here.

I think those were colons, not sad faces.

The Board software translates colon-leftparenthesis into sad-face , and colon-rightparenthesis into happy-face .

If you put the other available emoticons into a test message and post it, then go back to edit it, you'll see them translated back into their respective alpha characters.

Don't worry, WB, nobody around here's suffering from pre-catamenia, so nobody's gonna yell at you!

BTW, welcome to the nut house!

If you edit your message and just put a space between the colon and the parentheses you will convert your faces back to their original intent. I think. : ) vs

quote:

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Originally posted by WinterBranch:
catamite: Definition: A boy kept for unnatural purposes.

And catamount: (another name for the mountain lion)
NOUN: Chiefly Western U.S. A large powerful wild cat (Felis concolor) of mountainous regions of the Western Hemisphere. Also called mountain cat, panther, puma...

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This inspires an interesting plotline to a story I'll never write (I assume I'm not the only one here with a few dozen of these kicking around his or her noggin) to wit: A sexual deviate with a substandard vocabulary goes into a brothel desiring sex with a small boy, mistakenly requests a catamount, and ends up being eaten alive by a puma supplied by a madam with a strong "The customer is always right" philosophy.

Make this into a musical and I see Nathan Lane and Bernadette Peters in the leads, but maybe that's just me...

but it doesn't fit this thread! That's literally "cat-a-mountain," or mountain cat, which has nothing to do with the Greek "Cata," and I'm not lion about that!

I am laughing myself silly, and I can see that you people are not well!!

I like it!

I am laughing myself silly, and I can see that you people are not well!!
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Shhhhhhhhhhhh, WB, or they'll find out we're not taking our medication!