Re: Even more about dogs

--- In cybalist@egroups.com, "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:

> 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
>

I always thought "dog" was related to "dig".
Jeff