The story
- Middle English · inherited fromcaterwrawen
- English todaycaterwaul
From Middle English caterwrawen, from cater (“cat”) + wrawen, wrawlen (“cry like a cat”), equivalent to cat + waul. Compare Low German katerwaulen (“to cry like a cat”) and Middle Dutch cater (“tomcat”) (Dutch kater).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.