the.com/miaou
the cat's onomatopoeia wearing a beret, one vowel fancier than meow.
means an archaic or French-flavored spelling of the sound a cat makes, still occasionally deployed for whimsy or literary flair.
from from old english and french renderings of the feline cry, common in 17th to 19th century texts before meow standardized the spelling; miaou survived longest in french and poetic english.
literary sightingused by poets like thomas hardy and lewis carroll
french cousinmiaou is standard modern french for meow
spelling driftenglish eventually flattened it to meow