Зашто се први мачићи у воду бацају? – иконичност лексема мачка и кот (II)
Why Do First Kittens End Up Down the Drain? An Iconic Meaning of the Lexema Cat and Litter (II)

Summary/Abstract: In the Slavic folklore, a cat and similar other small animals with soft fur and numerous litters/offspring, represent symbols of a young female, bride, woman, female genitals, home and hearth, appearing thus in fertility rituals, connected with food, knitting, weaving, and magic, but they are also associated with female demons, such as „devour-eaters“, „child and harvest stealers“. All these are the characteristics of the Great Mother Goddess, in her terrifying, chthonic appearance. This paper points out to a possibility that the lexema cat [mačka in Serbian language] originated from the basis of mat- (in Serbian language: mati, majka, in English language: mom, mother): the motivation basis for the both expression/ word for cat/litter (in Serbian language: mačka/kot) could be connected with a representation of female genitals (womb, in Sebian language: materica), birthing, understood here as “expulsion”, and “unfold” of the large number of offspring. Actually, those are the meanings of the verb *kotiti sę I (in Serbian language, in English: littering)- “breeding, birthing, applied to cats and other animals”, and the verb *kotiti sę II- „troll, spin“, that is, the verb base *kat- „get moving, throwing“, connected with *kat- „wrapping, reeling, bending, entwining, meddling“. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that the primary iconic of the lexema macka (cat) was indeed conected the with uterus symbolism and representaion of mother. The saying First Kittens End Up Down the Drain (the giving back of the litter to the sea, water, as a symbol of mother’s death) is hence explainable in connection with the rituals of fertility, during which a first litter of the cult animals was sacrificed to the Goddess in order to ensure future fertility.

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