ailurophile: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 16 is:

ailurophile \eye-LOOR-uh-fyle\ noun
: a cat fancier : a lover of cats

Example sentence:
Bill, the office ailurophile, could often be heard talking about his cats, Smokey, Twinkle, and Lucy, as if they were his children.

Did you know?
Although the word "ailurophile" has only been documented in English since the 1920s, ailurophiles have been around for thousands of years. The ancient Egyptians were perhaps history's greatest cat lovers, pampering and adorning felines, honoring them in art, even treating them as gods. But the English word "ailurophile" does not descend from Egyptian; rather, it comes from a combination of the Greek word "ailouros," which means "cat," and the suffix "-phile," meaning "lover." If Egyptian cat-loving sentiments leave you cold and you're more sympathetic to medieval Europeans, who regarded cats as wicked agents of evil, you might prefer the word "ailurophobe" (from "ailouros" plus "-phobe," meaning "fearing or averse to").

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