A small wild feline animal; also used to describe something risky, unofficial, or unauthorized.
Compound word from 'wild' (Old English) and 'cat' (Latin 'cattus'). The meaning shifted to describe risky ventures like 'wildcat strikes' (unauthorized labor strikes) in the early 1900s.
The term 'wildcat strike' was brilliant labor vocabulary—it compared unauthorized workers who defied their own leaders to wild animals defying control! Language activists and workers invented some of our best modern slang.
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