Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/07/11/this-1812-websters-definition-of-a-house-cat-is-insulting-to-house-cats-everywhere-even-if-it-may-be-accurate.html
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Well, what do you expect from someone who made a career of being wrong about things, then writing them down.
He’s wrong about cats, but he was even more wrong about people.
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#notallcats
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Our cats exist for skritches and occasionally tormenting bugs. Or the dog. I’m not sure they see much difference between the two.
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My kitty is an angel, the only thing he is spiteful towards is the food bowl for not constantly being full.
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The cats I have known never cared enough to deceive, they would be a jerk right in front of you.
But mostly they just wanted to get fed and warm your lap or keyboard.
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The domestic cat needs no description.
Were all the definitions in the dictionary like this? “You know what this is, come on. Why did you even waste money on this book?”
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I don’t want to victim blame or anything, but if someone thinks housecats are “deceitful,” methinks they might just be stupid.
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I mean, my cats are prone to lying about whether they’ve already been fed.
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Are they lying, though, or just honestly expressing how much they would like more food right now, thank you very much? 
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i was born unto a very wise old Siamese cat which had just had a litter of her own. She immediately adopted me, complaining loudly (as that breed is of a wont to do), when i was plopped in a bathtub. And when i had the mumps she came in with a live garter snake, dropped it in the middle of my bed; declaring as obviously as possible: “Here’s some protein. May it make you well again”. (played with the snake for an hour or so and released it back into the garden) Loved that cat. Good teachers of patience and gravity.
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Table: (noun) Look at this absolute wanker who needs to look up “table” in the dictionary.
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Mine don’t lie, exactly. They just practice their acting skills. But only on days I’ve fed them while my spouse is asleep and left the house before he wakes. It’s not lying, it’s high drama.
It sounds to me as if Webster was one of those people cats hate. Cats are good judges of character
Webster in early life was something of a freethinker, but in 1808 he became a convert to Calvinistic orthodoxy, and thereafter became a devout Congregationalist who preached the need to Christianize the nation.[50] Webster grew increasingly authoritarian and elitist, fighting against the prevailing grain of Jacksonian Democracy. Webster viewed language as a tool to control unruly thoughts. His American Dictionary emphasized the virtues of social control over human passions and individualism, submission to authority, and fear of God; they were necessary for the maintenance of the American social order.
In 1832, Webster wrote and published a history textbook titled History of the United States, which omitted any reference to the role of slavery in American history and included racist characterizations of African Americans. The textbook also "spoke of whiteness as the supreme race and declared Anglo Saxons as the only true Americans.
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… our little grouch has never ingested any nutrients in her entire life, or so she claims 
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“Oh and [he missed] aardvark”
Edmund Blackadder
Johnson was also dismissive
CAT. n.s. [katz, Teuton. chat, Fr.] A domestick animal that catches mice, commonly reckoned by naturalists the lowest order of the leonine species. ’Twas you incens’d the rabble:
Cats, that can judge as fitly of his worth,
As I can of those mysteries, which Heav’n
Will not have earth to know.
Shakesp. Coriolanus.
Thrice the brinded cat hath mew’d.
Shakesp. Macbeth.
A cat, as she beholds the light, draws the ball of her eye small and long, being covered over with a green skin, and dilates it at pleasure.
Peacham on Drawing.
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