rat

Meaning

1. Any of the numerous members of several rodent families that usually have short limbs, a pointy snout, a long, hairless tail, and a body length greater than about 12 cm, or 5 inches.
2. A medium-sized rodent belonging to the genus Rattus.
3. A person who is known for betrayal.
4. An informant or snitch.
5. A scab: a worker who acts against trade union policies.
6. A person who routinely spends time at a particular location.
7. A wad of shed hair used as part of a hairstyle.
8. A roll of material used to puff out the hair, which is turned over it.
9. Vagina, vulva.
10. Ellipsis of muskrat.
11. To hunt or kill rats.
12. To betray a political party, cause or principle; to betray someone, to desert a person or thing.
13. To work as a scab, going against trade union policies.
14. To backcomb (hair).
15. To inform on someone; to betray someone to the police or authorities.
16. A scratch or a score.
17. A place in the sea with rapid currents and crags where a ship is likely to be torn apart in stormy weather.
18. To scratch or score.
19. To tear, rip, rend.
20. Damn, drat, blast; used in oaths.
21. A ration.
22. The first of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar.
23. Initialism of rapid antigen test.
24. Initialism of Rapid Area Transit.
25. Initialism of ram air turbine.
26. Initialism of remote-access Trojan.
27. Initialism of relevant alternatives theory.

Etymology / origin

From Middle English raat, rat, ratt, ratte, rotte, from Old English ræt, rætt, from Proto-West Germanic *ratt, from Proto-Germanic *rattaz, *rattō (“rat”), of uncertain origin, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₃d- (“to gnaw, scrape, scratch”). However, the rat may have been unknown in Northern Europe in antiquity, and the Proto-Germanic word may have referred to a different animal; see *rattaz for more. Attestation of this family of words begins in the 12th century. Cognates Cognate with North Frisian root (“rat”), Saterland Frisian Rotte (“rat”), West Frisian rôt (“rat”), Dutch rat, rot (“rat”), German Ratte (“rat”), Luxembourgish Rat (“rat”), Vilamovian rot, rott (“rat”), Yiddish ראַץ (rats, “rat”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål rotte (“rat”), Faroese and Icelandic rotta (“rat”), Norwegian Nynorsk rotta, rotte, røtte (“rat”), Swedish råtta (“rat”), Latin rattus, ratus (“rat”) (whence Asturian ratu (“mouse”), Catalan rata (“rat”), French rat (“rat”), Italian ratto (“rat”), Portuguese rato (“rat”), Spanish rata (“rat”), rato (“male rat”)); also Latin rōdō (“to bite, gnaw, nibble; to backbite, disparage, slander”), Sanskrit रदति (radati, “to scrape, scratch; to cut path, pave; to lead river into a channel; to bestow, convey”). Some of the Germanic cognates show considerable consonant variation, e.g. Middle Low German ratte, radde; Middle High German rate, ratte, ratze. The irregularity may be symptomatic of a late dispersal of the word, although Kroonen accounts for it with a Proto-Germanic stem *raþō nom., *ruttaz gen., showing both ablaut and a Kluge's law alternation, with the variation arising from varying remodellings in the descendants. Kroonen states that this requires a Proto-Indo-European etymon in final *t and is incompatible with the usual derivation from Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₃d- (“to scrape, scratch, gnaw”).

Related words

Descendant words

• reißn(Bavarian) (cog)
• rato(Galician) (cog)
• reißen(German) (cog)
• rato(Ido) (bor)
• ラット(Japanese) (bor)
• Rat(Luxembourgish) (cog)
• Ratt(Pennsylvania German) (cog)
• रदति(Sanskrit) (cog)
• alata(Sranan Tongo) (der)
• rat(Volapük) (bor)
• rôt(West Frisian) (cog)

Sources

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