Re: Even more about dogs

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 2391
Date: 2000-05-08

The connection between "dog" and "do" seems fanciful to me; OE *docga
[= *dogga] definitely doesn't look like an agent noun derived from
do:n 'to do'. What it DOES look like, with its medial geminate and
weak-noun ending, is a "hypocoristic" formation, like a truncated
personal name (OE Offa, German Otto, Norman Rollo, etc.). I bet it
was originally some Old English pet's name, not necessarily an
analysable one (but I welcome suggestions).

I starred the OE word above, since its ONLY attestation is the
gen.pl. docgena in a single OE gloss (docgena = canum), on the basis
of which the nom.sg. *docga is reconstructed. The word became popular
in Middle English in the meaning 'mastiff, large racing dog', then
generalised to include poodles and chihuahuas. German/Dutch
Dogge/dog 'mastiff, bulldog', deutsche Dogge/Duitse dog 'great Dane'
are loans from English, as are similar words in Scandinavian
languages, and even in Polish (dog 'great Dane').

Piotr

--- In cybalist@egroups.com, "David James" <david@...> wrote:
> Whilst on the subject of dogs, I'm sure I read somewhere that the
> English word 'dog' was derived from the verb 'to do', presumably
> because dogs were working hounds. It has been drawn to my attention
> that there is a German word 'Dogge' which is used for certain large
> breeds.
> Does this make the link with 'do' untenable, could the German word
> have a Plattdeutsch origin or has the German verb 'tun' mutated
from
> something closer to the word 'do'?
> Thank you in advance.
> Regards
> David