gatta

gatta (plural gattas)

1. (South Africa, slang) A police officer.
   • 2005, Al Lovejoy, Acid Alex, Zebra Press, published 2005, →ISBN, page 167:

     They went into the pub and started a fight. One that was just bad enough for someone to call the boere. When the gattas arrived they got donnered for their trouble.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /ˈχa.ta/

gatta (plural gattas)

1. (Cape Afrikaans) police officer, cop

From Late Latin catta.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡat.ta/
• Rhymes: -atta
• Hyphenation: gàt‧ta

gatta f (plural gatte, masculine gatto)

1. queen (female cat), she-cat
2. sex kitten

• gatto

• 'atta (apheretic variant)
• jatta (semiconsonant variant)
• atta, iatta (eye dialect, non-orthographic)

From the sonorization of Late Latin catta.

• IPA^(key): /ˈʔat.ta/ (guttural pronunciation, mostly western)
• IPA^(key): /ˈjat.ta/ (semiconsonant pronunciation, mostly eastern)
• Hyphenation: gàt‧ta

gatta f (plural gatti)

1. A cat, regardless of whether male or female.
   1. A female cat.
   2. A domesticated species (Felis catus) of feline animal, commonly kept as a house pet.

      Synonyms: gattuzza, gattareḍḍa; see also Thesaurus:gatta

• Unlike Italian, in Sicilian the generic name for the Felis catus species is inflected in the feminine, just as in Italian the male tiger still comes out with the feminine gender la tigre (cfr. also Sicilian a trighi).

• gattu