dog

See also: DOG, Dog, and dög

EnglishEdit

 
A dog (a Labrador retriever)

Alternative formsEdit

PronunciationEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Middle English dogge[1] (whence also Scots dug (“dog”)), from Old English dogga, docga,[2][3] of uncertain origin.

The original meaning seems to have been a common dog, as opposed to a well-bred one, or something like 'cur', and perhaps later came to be used for stocky dogs. Possibly a pet-form diminutive with suffix -ga (compare frocga (“frog”), *picga (“pig”)), appended to a base *dog-, *doc- of unclear origin and meaning. One possibility is Old English dox (“dark, swarthy”) (compare frocga from frox).[4] Another proposal is that it derives from Proto-West Germanic *dugan (“to be suitable”), the origin of Old English dugan (“to be good, worthy, useful”), English dow, German taugen. The theory goes that it could have been an epithet for dogs, commonly used by children, meaning "good/useful animal."[5]

In 14th-century England, hound (from Old English hund) was the general word for all domestic canines, and dog referred to a subtype resembling the modern mastiff and bulldog.[6] By the 16th century, dog had become the general word, and hound had begun to refer only to breeds used for hunting.[7] In the 16th century, the word dog was adopted by several continental European languages as their word for mastiff.[8]

NounEdit

dog (plural dogs)

  1. A mammal, Canis familiaris or Canis lupus familiaris, that has been domesticated for thousands of years, of highly variable appearance due to human breeding.
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 16, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      The preposterous altruism too! […] Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess‎[4]:
      When Timothy and Julia hurried up the staircase to the bedroom floor, where a considerable commotion was taking place, Tim took Barry Leach with him.  […] . The captive made no resistance and came not only quietly but in a series of eager little rushes like a timid dog on a choke chain.
    The dog barked all night long.
  2. Any member of the Family Canidae, including domestic dogs, wolves, coyotes, jackals, foxes, and their relatives (extant and extinct); canid.
    • 1989, John L. Gittleman, Carnivore Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution, page 561:
      This includes the development of hyena-like bone crushers (Osteoborus and Borophagus), a large bone-crushing hunting dog (Aelurodon), and another borophagine frugivorous dog (Carpocyon).
  3. (often attributive) A male dog, wolf or fox, as opposed to a bitch or vixen.
    • 1928, Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Penguin 2013, page 149:
      Firstly, he was there to encourage and assist the hounds (a scratch pack – mostly dog-hounds drafted from fox-hound kennels because they were over-sized) […].
  4. (slang, derogatory) A dull, unattractive girl or woman.
    She’s a real dog.
  5. (slang) A man (derived from definition 2).
    You lucky dog!
  6. (slang, derogatory) A coward.
    Come back and fight, you dogs!
  7. (derogatory) Someone who is morally reprehensible.
    You dirty dog.
    • 1599, Robert Greene, Alphonsus, King of Aragon (1599). Act 3.
      Blasphemous dog, I wonder that the earth / Doth cease from renting vnderneath thy feete, / To swallow vp those cankred corpes of thine.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, 2 Kings 8:13, column 1:
      And Hazael said ſaid, But what, is thy ſeruant a dogge, that he ſhould doe this great thing?
    • 1887, H. Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure‎[5]:
      [A]t last Mahomed's stood straight up upon its vertebræ, and glared at me through its empty eyeholes, and cursed me with its grinning jaws, because I, a dog of a Christian, disturbed the last sleep of a true believer.
  8. (slang) A sexually aggressive man.
    • 2005, Jordan Houston, Darnell Carlton, Paul Beauregard, Premro Smith, Marlon Goodwin, David Brown, and Willie Hutchinson (lyrics), “Stay Fly”, in Most Known Unknown‎[6], Sony BMG, performed by Three 6 Mafia (featuring Young Buck, 8 Ball, and MJG):
      DJ Paul is a dog; one you do not trust.
  9. Any of various mechanical devices for holding, gripping, or fastening something, particularly with a tooth-like projection.
    • 2009, ForestWorks, Chainsaw Operator's Manual, page 41:
      Whenever possible, let the tree support the weight of the chainsaw. Pivot the saw, using the saw's dogs (spikes) as a fulcrum.
  10. (Can we clean up(+) this sense?) A click or pallet adapted to engage the teeth of a ratchet-wheel, to restrain the back action; a click or pawl. (See also: ratchet, windlass)
  11. A metal support for logs in a fireplace.
    The dogs were too hot to touch.
  12. (cartomancy) The eighteenth Lenormand card.
  13. A hot dog.
    • 1994 July 21, Faye Fiore, “Congress relishes another franking privilege: Meat lobby puts on the dog with exclusive luncheon for lawmakers – experts on pork”, in Los Angeles Times‎[7]:
      Congressmen gleefully wolfed down every imaginable version of the hot dog – smoked kielbasas, jumbo grillers, Big & Juicy's, kosher dogs and spiced dogs […]
  14. (poker slang) Underdog.
  15. (slang, almost always in the plural) Foot.
    My dogs are barking! ― My feet hurt!
  16. (Cockney rhyming slang) (from "dog and bone") Phone or mobile phone.
    My dog is dead.
    My mobile-phone battery has run out of charge and is no longer able to function.
  17. One of the cones used to divide up a racetrack when training horses.
  18. shortened form of dog meat.
    Did you know that in South Korea, they eat dog?
  19. (informal) Something that performs poorly.
    That modification turned his Dodge hemi into a dog.
    1. (film) A flop; a film that performs poorly at the box office.
      • 1969, Ski (volume 34, number 4, page 121)
        Blue was released, and as Redford had predicted, it was a dog.
      • 2012, Ronald L. Davis, Duke: The Life and Image of John Wayne
        “When The Alamo was coming out, the word of mouth on it was that it was a dog,” Chase said.

SynonymsEdit

Coordinate termsEdit

HyponymsEdit

  • (animal):

HypernymsEdit

Derived termsEdit

DescendantsEdit

TranslationsEdit

See dog/translations § Noun.

VerbEdit

dog (third-person singular simple present dogs, present participle dogging, simple past and past participle dogged)

  1. (transitive) To pursue with the intent to catch.
    Synonyms: chase, chase after, go after, pursue, tag, tail, track, trail
  2. (transitive) To follow in an annoying or harassing way.
    The woman cursed him so that trouble would dog his every step.
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar […], OCLC 928184292:
      […] they were discovered in a very improper manner by the husband of the gypsy, who, from jealousy it seems, had kept a watchful eye over his wife, and had dogged her to the place, where he found her in the arms of her gallant.
    • 2012 January 1, Michael Riordan, “Tackling Infinity”, in American Scientist‎[8], volume 100, number 1, page 86:
      Some of the most beautiful and thus appealing physical theories, including quantum electrodynamics and quantum gravity, have been dogged for decades by infinities that erupt when theorists try to prod their calculations into new domains. Getting rid of these nagging infinities has probably occupied far more effort than was spent in originating the theories.
    • 2012 May 9, Jonathan Wilson, “Europa League: Radamel Falcao's Atlético Madrid rout Athletic Bilbao”, in the Guardian‎[9]:
      But this is not an Athletic that ever looks comfortable at the back – a criticism that has often dogged Marcelo Bielsa's sides.
    • 2021 June 21, Daisuke Wakabayashi, “Google Executives See Cracks in Their Company’s Success”, in The New York Times‎[10], ISSN 0362-4331:
      Yet Google, which was founded in 1998, is dogged by the perception that its best days are behind it.
  3. (transitive, nautical) To fasten a hatch securely.
    It is very important to dog down these hatches.
  4. (intransitive, emerging usage in Britain) To watch, or participate, in sexual activity in a public place.
    I admit that I like to dog at my local country park.
  5. (intransitive, transitive) To intentionally restrict one's productivity as employee; to work at the slowest rate that goes unpunished.
    Synonyms: soldier, goldbrick
    A surprise inspection of the night shift found that some workers were dogging it.
  6. (transitive) To criticize.
  7. (transitive, military) To divide (a watch) with a comrade.
    • 1902, Winfield Scott Schley, Record of Proceedings of a Court of Inquiry
      A. We never stood 4 to 8 p.m. watches, sir. We dogged our watches.
      Q. I suppose that is 6 to 8 p.m., then; it is a little indistinct. I mean the second dog watch.
    • 2015, Tom Vetter, 30,000 Leagues Undersea
      Meanwhile, we dogged the watch sections so that both halves of the crew could fetch full sea bags of uniforms and gear […]

TranslationsEdit

See alsoEdit

Further readingEdit

ReferencesEdit

  1. ^ Hans Kurath, Sherman M. Kuhn, Middle English Dictionary (1962, →ISBN), page 4, page 1204
  2. ^ Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) , “docga”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  3. ^ Laurel Brinton, Alexander Bergs, Old English (2017, →ISBN), page 59: "In addition, the velar [ɡɡ] and palatal [ɡɡj] geminates could be written as <gg> or <cg>, as in <dogga> ~ <docga> ..."; Richard M. Hogg, Norman Francis Blake, The Cambridge History of the English Language (1992, →ISBN), volume 1, age 91 says much the same.
  4. ^ Piotr Gąsiorowski, 2006. The Etymology of Old English *docga. Indogermanische Forschungen, 111.
  5. ^ [1]
  6. ^ [2]
  7. ^ [3]
  8. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “dog”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

AnagramsEdit

AfrikaansEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Dutch docht.

PronunciationEdit

VerbEdit

dog

  1. Alternative form of dag (preterite of dink)

DanishEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Old Danish dogh, which was borrowed from Middle Low German doch, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *þauh.

AdverbEdit

dog

  1. however
    Det er dog ikke sikkert, at de taler sandt.
    It is, however, not certain that they are telling the truth.
  2. Conveying impressedness, emotional affectation, bewilderment.
    Hvor er den hund dog nuttet!
    How cute that dog is!
    Sikke dramatisk du dog kan fremstille sagen!
    How dramatically you can present the matter!

ConjunctionEdit

dog

  1. though

DutchEdit

EtymologyEdit

Borrowed from English dog. Attested since the 16th century.

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

dog m (plural doggen, diminutive dogje n)

  1. A large dog, especially one of certain breeds.

Derived termsEdit

KriolEdit

EtymologyEdit

From English dog.

NounEdit

dog

  1. dog

MbabaramEdit

EtymologyEdit

From *dwog(a), from *udwoga, from *gudwaga, from Proto-Pama-Nyungan *gudaga. Related to Dyirbal guda, Yidiny gudaga. Not related to English dog; it is a false cognate.[1][2]

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

dog

  1. dog

ReferencesEdit

  1. ^ Language Hat, excerpting Dixon's Memoirs of a Field Worker
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Stephen R. Anderson, Languages: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford 2012), 36.

NavajoEdit

EtymologyEdit

Onomatopoeic.

InterjectionEdit

dog

  1. thump, dub (sound of a heartbeat; thumping sound of a person walking on the roof of a house as heard by someone in the house)

SynonymsEdit

Norwegian BokmålEdit

AdverbEdit

dog

  1. however

ConjunctionEdit

dog

  1. though

PortugueseEdit

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

dog m (plural dogs)

  1. Clipping of hot dog.

SwedishEdit

PronunciationEdit

VerbEdit

dog

  1. past tense of dö.

AnagramsEdit

Torres Strait CreoleEdit

EtymologyEdit

From English dog.

NounEdit

dog

  1. dog

VolapükEdit

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

dog (nominative plural dogs)

  1. (male or female) dog

DeclensionEdit

declension of dog
singular plural
nominative dog dogs
genitive doga dogas
dative doge doges
accusative dogi dogis
vocative 1 o dog! o dogs!
predicative 2 dogu dogus
  • 1 status as a case is disputed
  • 2 in later, non-classical Volapük only

Derived termsEdit

Related termsEdit

WestrobothnianEdit

AdjectiveEdit

dog

  1. proper, a lot; added to adj. to reinforce the meaning
    Dog snål
    particularly stingy
    Dog lat
    very lazy
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