the.com/tabby
the cat wearing pinstripes since before pinstripes were cool, branded by a Middle Eastern silk.
means A cat with a coat of stripes, swirls, or spots — typically marked with the telltale 'M' on the forehead; also, by extension, the patterned silk fabric the look is named after.
from From the French 'tabis,' a kind of striped or watered silk, which traces back through medieval Latin and Italian to the Arabic 'attabiya' — a quarter of Baghdad named for a prince, where this striped taffeta was famously made. The fabric's rippling pattern reminded people of a streaked cat's coat, and so the silk lent its name to the animal. (The use of 'Tabby' as a generic name for a female cat came later, helped along by the personal name.)
- name origin
- From Attabiyah, a Baghdad district famous for striped silk
- forehead mark
- The 'M' stripe appears on nearly every tabby
- not a breed
- It's a coat pattern, found across many breeds
- wildcat blueprint
- Mackerel tabby mimics ancestral African wildcat camouflage
- genetic default
- Every cat carries tabby genes, even solid blacks
tabby cat — most common domestic cat pattern with stripes, found in millions worldwide
tabby fabric — silk weave originating from attab district in baghdad, 8th century onward