civvy cat

English

Etymology

A clipping of civet cat.

Noun

civvy cat (plural civvy cats)

  1. (US regional) Originally the civet of Africa and Asia; now a skunk.
    • 1810, Splendid Follies; or, Mistley Manor, volume 1, page 124:
      I hope it's nothing to make you smell like a civvy-cat, for I can't sit in the coach with none of them there French stinks, it poisons me alive, and so pray don't let's have no poppy-loat.
    • [1927, V. Randolph, “More Words from the Ozarks”, in Dialect Notes, volume 5, American Dialect Society, page 473:
      civvy-cat, n. A civet, a little striped skunk, very similar to the phoby-cat of the Southwest.]
    • 1953 May 22, State Hornet‎[1], volume 5, number 29, pages 1, 4:
      Inclusion of exotic dishes on the bill of fare has also been announced. Soup sandwiches on pretzels, baked jack rabbit under glass, roast breast of mink, sirloin of catfish, southern fried civvy cat, prairie dog au gratin and other choice morsels will be featured daily.
    • [1962, E. Bagby Atwood, The Regional Vocabulary of Texas, University of Texas Press, pages 53-54:
      Animal with the bad odor. For the familiar black-and-white animals (Mephitis, Spilogale, etc.) that secrete musk, or worse, the most widely known word is polecat (69); but skunk (52), which is in general characteristic of the Northern part of the country, is gaining ground. A few informants use civet cat (6) and civvy cat (2.2), although some state that this means a different kind of varmint.]
    • 2000, Wesley E. Hall, The River Bend: Collected Stories & Anecdotes, Writers Club Press, page 103:
      I ought to of known it because from the time I was five I had hunted cottontail rabbits, skunks, and civvy cats all over it and I was the only secret operative in the area, as well as the official Konawa Leader newspaper correspondent for the entire River Bend.
    • 2016, Robert Willis, Barlow and Other Stories‎[2]:
      He's like one them Idaho civvy cats. If you try to git too close to 'im, he'll pee on you sho’s the world!

References

  • Michael B. Montgomery, Jennifer K. N. Heinmiller, editors (2021), “civet”, in Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English‎[3], University of North Carolina Press.
  • “civvy cat”, in Dictionary of American Regional English‎[4], 2016, archived from the original on 4 August 2020.
  • Robert Hendrickson (2000) “civvy cat”, in The Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms: Local Expressions from Coast to Coast, page 462.
  • Elizabeth S. Bright (1971) A Word Geography of California and Nevada, University of California Press, page 185.
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