Etymology
1. c.1205, from Anglo-Fr.
cachier "catch, capture" (animals), from V.L.
*captiare "try to seize, chase," freq. of L.
capere "to take, hold" (see capable). Sense shifted from original meaning of "chase, hunt." Past tense form
caught is rare instance of Eng. strong verb with Fr. origin, probably infl. by
latch, the cognate native verb, which this word replaced. Noun meaning "that which is caught or worth catching" (especially of spouses) is from 1596.
Catchy was a colloquial word in 1831. To
catch on "apprehend" is 1884, Amer.Eng. colloquial. To
catch (someone's) eye is first attested 1813, in Jane Austen.
Catchword (1730) was originally the first word of the following page inserted at the right-hand lower corner of each page of a book; extended to "word caught up and repeated" (especially in the political sense) by 1795.
Catch as catch can first attested 1393.
2. Etymology tree
3. Latin captus
4. Proto-Indo-European *-yetider.
5. Latin -io
6. Vulgar Latin *captiāre
7. Old French chacierbor.
8. Anglo-Norman cachierbor.
9. Middle English cacchen
10. English catch
11. From Middle English cacchen, from Anglo-Norman cachier, variant of Old French chacier, from Late Latin captiāre, from Latin captāre, frequentative of capere. Akin to Modern French chasser (from Old French chacier) and Spanish cazar, and thus a doublet of chase. Compare ketch. Via PIE cognate with have. Displaced Middle English fangen ("to catch"; > Modern English fang (verb)), from Old English fōn (“to seize, take”); Middle English lacchen ("to catch" and heavily displaced Modern English latch), from Old English læċċan.
12. The verb became irregular, possibly under the influence of the semantically similar latch (from Old English læċċan), whose past tense was lahte, lauhte, laught (Old English læhte), until becoming regularised in Modern English. See: Middle English '
cacchen', Latin '
captō', French '
chasser', Old French '
chacier', Spanish '
cazar'.
Verbs referencing "catch"
Galician
cachear, Galician
cachar, Spanish
cachar, Tok Pisin kisim, Portuguese
cachir.