How is it that in English we now use dog instead of the Germanic hund? It appears to have spring up in the 15th Century as docga, and replaced hund within a century. Can anyone make an educated guess as to the origin of the original docga?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Geoff,

I remember this came up on the TV show QI a while back. IIRC the answer was "nobody knows".

Why?

Yes, arnie and QI are correct. Nobody knows.

Can anyone make an educated guess as to the origin of the original docga?

It is possibly from a Germanic word for a large dog. It means mastiff in Swedish, and cognates occur in Dutch and Danish. As to whether it comes from PIE originally or is one of those (many) roots that only exist in Germanic, I do not know, nor have I seen any suggestions.

It is common for a word to take on a more specialized meaning and be replaced by another one. E.g., dog and hound in English. Deer in English and German. (German Tier means 'animal').

Oh, and 15th century is a little late. It's pre-1066: it occurs in an Old English glossary on a Latin work, the Psychomachia by Prudentius.

I found that discussion, arnie: http://old.qi.com/talk/viewtopic.php?start=0&t=4586 So maybe it referred to a specific dog, such as the mastiff - the common "war dog" referred to in "Julius Caesar," ("Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war") I find it interesting that "havoc" was a specific military command. Anyway, it seems "dog" has no pedigree!

Oops, Z, you snuck in right before my second post! In that QI discussion someone mentioned Spanish "perro." Funny how "perro de canarios" means "dog of Canario," or "canary dog." So the Canary Islands are named for dogs, but known for little tweety birds. Go figure...