animal
Kotofei Kotofeich
also: Котафей Котафеич, Kotofei, Котафей
An affectionately mock-formal nickname -- "Kotofei" echoes the Russian word for tomcat and the folktale figure Kotofei Ivanovich -- almost certainly a Babkino household cat or kitten, greeted here in Chekhov's list of comic bows to the Kiselev circle alongside the Squire and Vasilisa; not otherwise attested in this corpus, on the same footing as the established dog Korbo.
Reading notes
- To M. V. Kiseleva, 17 February 1889. Moscow. §6 the most amiable Kotofei Kotofeich
"Kotofei Kotofeich" (Котафей Котафеич) is an affectionately mock-formal nickname -- "Kotofei" evokes the Russian word for tomcat and the folktale figure Kotofei Ivanovich -- almost certainly a Babkino household cat or kitten addressed with comic ceremony alongside the human members of the household. Not otherwise attested in this corpus; modeled as a minor animal entity on the precedent of the established dog Korbo, and left untranslated as a nickname rather than rendered into English, consistent with this corpus's convention for such household names (cf. "Sysoikha," "Ma-Ste" in letter 3-548).