A stick or tool, possibly used in games, construction, or training, that bears some unclear connection to cats.
From 'cat' (origin unclear in this context) plus 'stick' from Old English 'sticca'; the specific referent or original purpose has been lost to history.
Old compound words like 'catstick' are archaeological artifacts of language—they're tools we can't quite remember how to use, tantalizing hints of knowledge that vanished when the people who invented them died.
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