Actually this is an old word,but since it is little used it can be put into service as a new insult!
The primary meaning of Grimalkin is an elderly female cat,but it also means an old bad tempered woman or crone. I came across the word in a book (imagine that!) and it has been used in literature since Shakespeare (Macbeth). It was also used by Henry Fielding (Tom Jones),Washington Irving,Emily Bronte,H.P. Lovecraft and other assorted authors. It may have first been used by William Baldwin (1570) in "Beware the Cat". The novel features the grimalkin as a talking cat.
There are a few alternate spellings,greymalkin,grimmalkin or grimolochin. The term stems from grey (the color) plus malkin,an archaic term for cat. Scottish legend makes reference to the grimalkin as a fairy cat that dwells in the highlands.
The primary meaning of Grimalkin is an elderly female cat,but it also means an old bad tempered woman or crone. I came across the word in a book (imagine that!) and it has been used in literature since Shakespeare (Macbeth). It was also used by Henry Fielding (Tom Jones),Washington Irving,Emily Bronte,H.P. Lovecraft and other assorted authors. It may have first been used by William Baldwin (1570) in "Beware the Cat". The novel features the grimalkin as a talking cat.
There are a few alternate spellings,greymalkin,grimmalkin or grimolochin. The term stems from grey (the color) plus malkin,an archaic term for cat. Scottish legend makes reference to the grimalkin as a fairy cat that dwells in the highlands.
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