Catnapper

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who stealthily takes away or abducts cats for various purposes is often referred to as this term
2. This term describes an individual who engages in the act of capturing cats, typically for malintent or commercial gain
3. This refers to someone involved in the unlawful or deceptive activity of seizing cats, usually for profit or personal gain

Etymology: "Catnapper" is a blend of two English words that were already in use: "catnap," a short light sleep, and "kidnapper," someone who abducts a person. The catnap half came first. It is a compound of "cat" and "nap," and the "-er" ending on "catnapper" is the ordinary agent suffix that turns a verb or noun into a person who does the thing. The source also allows that "catnapper" may have come directly from "catnap" plus "-er," and the two routes meet in the sense of someone who snatches a cat. Either way, the word's core is the idea of a sudden taking, borrowed from "kidnapper" and reshaped around the cat theme. The sense of stealing cats for profit or gain is the one the word carries in use.

Synonyms: napper, sleeper, dozer, slumberer