Also 6 Sc. kittie. [One of the pet forms of the female name Catherine; cf. KATE, KATY, KIT sb.4 (Cf. also CUTTY sb., senses 2 and 3.)]
† 1. A girl or young woman; a wench; sometimes (= kittie unsell) a woman of loose character. (Cf. KITTOCK.) Sc. Obs.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xiv. 76. Sa mony ane Kittie, drest vp with goldin chenȝe.
a. 1550. Christis Kirke Gr., i. Thair come our kitteis weschin clene, In thair new kirtillis.
c. 1560. A. Scott, Poems (S.T.S.), xxvi. 19. I can thame call bot kittie vnsellis, That takkis sic maneris at thair motheris.
1572. Lament Lady Scotl., 112, in Satir. Poems Reform., xxxiii. Bot at the last, throw filthy speiche and Counsell, That scho did heir of sum curst Kittie vnsell.
2. Local name for the wren; also kitty-wren.
1825. Brockett, Kitty-wren, or Jenny-wren, the wren.
1860. All Year Round, No. 63. 295. The male wrens of North America … build ‘cock-nests’ … like the males of our distinct kitty-wrens.
1885. Swainson, Prov. Names Brit. Birds, 35. Wren…. Familiar names. Kitty, Jenny.
1893. Newton, Dict. Birds, Kitty, a local nickname of the Wren.
b. Also prefixed to, or forming part of the local names of other birds, as kitty-coot, the moorhen (Gallinula chloropus); kitty-needy, the sandpiper; kitty-witch = KITTIWAKE; also name of a small swimming crab, Porcellana platycheles.
1850. Zoologist, VIII. 2644, note. ‘Kittie-needie’ [Aberdeenshire] … the common sandpiper.
1876. Smiles, Sc. Natur., vii. (ed. 4), 125. The piping of the kittyneedy … the boom of the snipe, were often heard at night.
1885. Swainson, Prov. Names Brit. Birds, 178. Moor Hen…. Kitty coot (Dorset).
