From Middle High German merekatze, from Old High German merikazza (11th century); equivalent to Meer (“sea”) + Katze (“cat”). So called probably because they were brought to Europe over the sea from Africa. The restriction to the specific species is obviously not original, but a fairly recent scientific use. Adelung (ca. 1780) still defines it as referring to any long-tailed monkey. Compare Middle Dutch meercatte, whence eventually English meerkat.
Meerkatze f (genitive Meerkatze, plural Meerkatzen)
singular | plural | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
indef. | def. | noun | def. | noun | |
nominative | eine | die | Meerkatze | die | Meerkatzen |
genitive | einer | der | Meerkatze | der | Meerkatzen |
dative | einer | der | Meerkatze | den | Meerkatzen |
accusative | eine | die | Meerkatze | die | Meerkatzen |