In article ,
"Mary" wrote:

"Zythophile" wrote in message
...

"Dave" wrote in message
ews.com...
In message WW4zd.3323$2_4.2768@okepread06 "Cat Protector"
wrote:

Simpy put. A male cat.

Not to disagree, but... It means an unaltered male cat.


So what's the word for a castrated male cat? If tom refers to an entire
male
cat, then I'd assume that there is a word for a castrated male cat. cf
stallion - gelding; bull - bullock; ram - wether; cockerel - capon; boar -
hog. BTW, is there a word for a castrated dog? It's interesting that I
can't
think of one example when there's a different word for a female animal
when
she's been neutered. The only reason that I can find for this is that
there's no agricultutral advantage to neutering female animals. There are
words for female animals before they've reached sexual maturity eg heifer,
gilt, pullet; but there are, AFAIK, no words for neutered female animals.
--

In the dictionary (Webster's Unabridged 2004), "tomcat" just means "male
cat." The distinction of it meaning
a sexually intact male cat only happened in Dave's mind.

And the minds of lots of other people, including myself and, AFAIK,
everyone I know. Tom = unaltered male is certainly what I've always
been told.

Priscilla

--
"It is very, very dangerous to treat any human, lowest
of the low even, with contempt and arrogant whatever.
The Lord takes this kind of treatment very, very personal."
- QBaal in newsgroup alt.religion.christian.episcopal