GC:

S: NCBI – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2837713/ (last access: 19 September 2024); The Guardian – https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/09/rats-cockroaches-pests-english-hospitals-nhs (last access: 19 September 2024).

N: 1. “a rodent of some of the larger species of the genus Mus,” late Old English ræt “rat,” a word of uncertain origin. Similar words are found in Celtic (Gaelic radan), Romanic (Medieval Latin ratus, Italian ratto, Spanish rata, Old French rat) and Germanic (Old Saxon ratta; Middle Dutch ratte, Dutch rat; German Ratte, dialectal Ratz; Swedish råtta, Danish rotte) languages, but their connection to one another and the ultimate source of the word are unknown. In its range and uncertain origin, it is much like cat.

Perhaps from Vulgar Latin *rattus, but Weekley thinks this is of Germanic origin, “the animal having come from the East with the race-migrations” and the word passing thence to the Romanic languages. American Heritage and Tucker connect Old English ræt to Latin rodere and thus to PIE root *red- “to scrape, scratch, gnaw,” source of rodent (q.v.). Klein says there is no such connection and suggests a possible cognate in Greek rhine “file, rasp.” Weekley connects the English noun and the Latin verb with a question mark and OED says it is “probable” that the rat word spread from Germanic to Romanic, but takes no position on further etymology. The common Middle English form was ratton, from augmented Old French form raton. Applied to rat-like species on other continents from 1580s.

The distinction between rat and mouse, in the application of the names to animals everywhere parasitic with man, is obvious and familiar. But these are simply larger and smaller species of the same genus, very closely related zoologically, and in the application of the two names to the many other species of the same genus all distinction between them is lost. [Century Dictionary]

Applied since 12c. (in surnames) to persons held to resemble rats or share some characteristic or quality with them. Specific sense of “one who abandons his associates for personal advantage” (1620s) is from the belief that rats leave a ship about to sink or a house about to fall, and this led to the meaning “traitor, informant” (1902).

To smell a rat “to be put on the watch by suspicion as the cat by the scent of a rat; to suspect danger” [Johnson] is from 1540s.  _____-rat, “person who frequents _____” (in earliest reference dock-rat) is from 1864.

2. Also known as: Rattus.

• rat, (genus Rattus), the term generally and indiscriminately applied to numerous members of several rodent families having bodies longer than about 12 cm, or 5 inches. (Smaller thin-tailed rodents are just as often indiscriminately referred to as mice.) In scientific usage, rat applies to any of 56 thin-tailed, medium-sized rodent species in the genus Rattus native to continental Asia and the adjacent islands of Southeast Asia eastward to the Australia-New Guinea region. A few species have spread far beyond their native range in close association with people. The brown rat, Rattus norvegicus (also called the Norway rat), and the house rat, R. rattus (also called the black rat, ship rat, or roof rat), live virtually everywhere that human populations have settled; the house rat is predominant in warmer climates, and the brown rat dominates in temperate regions, especially urban areas. Most likely originating in Asia, the brown rat reached Europe in the mid-1500s and North America around 1750. The house rat most likely originated in India.

3. Brown and house rats exploit human food resources, eating and contaminating stored grains and killing poultry. They have been responsible for the depletion or extinction of native species of small mammals, birds, and reptiles, especially on oceanic islands. Both the brown and house rat have been implicated in the spread of 40 diseases among humans, including bubonic plague, food poisoning, schistosomiasis, murine typhus, tularemia, and leptospirosis. On the other hand, the brown rat has been used in laboratories worldwide for medical, genetic, and basic biological research aimed at maintaining and improving human health. Rats are also kept as pets.

4. Rats are generally slender with a pointed head, large eyes, and prominent, thinly furred ears. They have moderately long legs and long, sharp claws. The bald soles of their narrow hind feet possess fleshy pads of variable size, depending on species. The brown rat has a larger body than the house rat, and its tail is shorter relative to the body. The brown rat also has thicker fur and 12 pairs of mammae instead of 10. Tail length among rats ranges from shorter than body length to appreciably longer. The tail appears smooth and bald but is actually covered with very short, fine hairs. In a very few species, these hairs become longer toward the tip, which gives the tail a slightly tufted appearance. As with any large group of rodents, body size varies within the genus. Most species are about the size of Hoffman’s rat (R. hoffmanni), native to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and weighing 95 to 240 grams (3.4 to 8.5 ounces), with a body length of 17 to 21 cm (6.7 to 8.3 inches) and a tail about as long. One of the smaller species is Osgood’s rat (R. osgoodi) of southern Vietnam, with a body 12 to 17 cm long and a somewhat shorter tail. At the larger extreme is the Sulawesian white-tailed rat (R. xanthurus), measuring 19 to 27 cm long with a tail of 26 to 34 cm.

5. Mammals; Phraseology: rat.

• Group: a colony of rats. Male: buck. Female: doe. Young: nestling.

General Vocabulary: rat.

• A cowardly or selfish person who deserts his associates.

6. Cultural Interrelation: We can mention a list of rat movies, like Willard (1971) directed by Daniel Mann or Ben (1972) by Phil Karlson.

S: 1. Etymonline – https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=rat (last access: 19 September 2024). 2 to 4. EncBrit – https://www.britannica.com/animal/rat (last access: 19 September 2024). 5. TERMIUM PLUS – https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng&i=1&srchtxt=rat&index=alt&codom2nd_wet=1#resultrecs (last access: 19 September 2024). 6. IMDb – https://www.imdb.com/list/ls561855763/ (last access: 19 September 2024).

SYN:
S:

CR: hantavirus, leptospirosis, plague, salmonellosis, sodoku, trichomonas, tularemia.