Cats

The species name Felis silvetris includes numerous subspecies of wild cat as well as the familiar domestic variety Felis silvetris catus. The distinction is relevant because we have references to both types in Tolkien's tales. The black and white cats of Queen Berúthiel, for instance, are clearly of the domesticated kind, but we do have at least one unequivocal reference to wild cats. Specifically, the noise made by the alarmed Goblins of Goblin-town is compared to 'Several hundred wild cats and wolves being roasted slowly alive together...' in The Hobbit 4, Over Hill and Under Hill.

In classical Latin, the word for 'cat' was felés (from which we get, for example, modern 'feline' as well as the generic name Felis), but in later times the word cattus made its way into Latin vocabulary. From this source comes the word 'cat' in English (and similar words in many other European languages). The ultimate origin of this word is uncertain, but most analyses suggest that it was adopted from a culture somewhere in North Africa or the Middle East.