From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 3234
Date: 2000-08-18
----- Original Message -----From: Anne WrightSent: Saturday, August 19, 2000 12:05 AMSubject: [tied] Dog
Dear Ann,Welcome to Cybalist. The word "dog" has been discussed on this list before. It's a purely English word in the sense that it was coined in England towards the end of the Old English period (it occurs only once in an accidental Anglo-Saxon gloss to a Latin text, where "canorum" is translated as "docga"). Initially it didn't mean 'dog' in general but a specific breed of "hundas" -- 'English mastiff', I think. There is no reason whatsoever to ascribe an IE etymology to this word -- even the West Germanic languages closely related to English didn't have it until they borrowed "dogge" from English, again in the restricted sense 'mastiff' or 'great Dane'. English is the only language to have generalised its meaning.PiotrI wonder if anyone has looked at a possible connection between 'dog' and an
Indo-European word; *dhegh- or *dhegwh for 'day' and also 'heat', 'burning', and
'hot weather'.
The dog-star Sirius is connected with the hot weather and such words as bright,
scorching, blazing, burning; referring to the hot sun and "the dog days".
"The brilliant constellation of the Dog: it barks forth flame, raves with its
fire, and doubles the burning heat of the Sun" (Manilius 1st century AD).
The dog is day animal.
I have only been on this list a week, I'm finding it a great place to be.
Anne Wright
http://www.winshop.com.au/annew/