"Pisică" sounds a lot like "pussycat" and is the generic term but in specific it can refer to female specimens, while males are "pisoi" ("tomcat"). I'm not Romanian though, so more knowledgeable people please correct me.

[–] q47tx@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

True. I'm romanian.

[–] Ozzy@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah you got it all correct.

Anyway here are some synonyms that sound more like what other countries call cats.

Mâță (Cat/Kitty)

Motan (Male cat)

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Pisoi pronounced like the french for urinal, pissoir?

[–] RandomVideos@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago

There is also "motan", which is used way more than "pisoi", but most of the time "pisică" is used no matter the gender

[–] afk_strats@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

One of the main theories in the etymology of this world is that it's the "pspsps" animal or in Romanian "pispispis". It's then noun-ified with the "că" ending and an "i" was added in the middle to make pronunciation easier.

[–] Rolando@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

That's brilliant. Their name for cats is a sound that pleases the cats.