: a cement made of lime, sand or gravel, and oyster shells and used chiefly along the coast of Georgia and South Carolina in the 17th and 18th centuries
Examples of tabby in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Viewers online were able to see Otis gently approaching the family's tabby cat with the toy.—David Faris, Newsweek, 9 July 2024 The brown-and-white tabby, whose official title is Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, will reportedly by joined by the Starmer family cat, JoJo.—Karla Adam, Washington Post, 5 July 2024
Adjective
Vermont State University Castleton's 2024 graduating class had the honor of sharing their commencement celebrations over the weekend with none other than Max, a tabby cat who has become something of a local celebrity during his time at the university.—Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY, 21 May 2024 After his turn as the suave, swashbuckling tabby cat, Banderas reprised his role as another mythic outlaw hero in The Legend of Zorro (2005).—Andrew Walsh, EW.com, 21 Apr. 2024 See all Example Sentences for tabby
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tabby.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Noun (1)
French tabis, from Middle French atabis, from Medieval Latin attabi, from Arabic ʽattābī, from Al-ʽAttābīya, quarter in Baghdad
Noun (2)
Gullah tabi, ultimately from Spanish tapia adobe wall
from French tabis "a silk fabric with a lustrous wavy finish," from Latin attabi (same meaning), from Arabic 'attābī (same meaning), from Al-'Attābīya, name of a part of Baghdad where the cloth was made
Word Origin
A silk cloth with a striped or wavy pattern was once made in a section of the ancient city of Baghdad in what is now Iraq. The Arabic name for the cloth was 'attābī, from Al-'Attābīya, the name of the part of the city where it was made. Through Latin, the French borrowed this word for the cloth, calling it tabis. This word in turn became tabby in English. People saw a resemblance between the striped or wavy pattern of the silk and cats that had striped or spotted markings on their fur. Thus these cats came to be called tabby cats after the cloth.
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