Pooch (1919)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   "Pooch" is an "origin unknown."  I always thought it was from "poodle."  OED and MERRIAM-WEBSTER have 1924.
   I was thinking about this while writing about "poochee" (the Sri Lankan term for insects).  I've been putting a number of terms into the AMERICAN PERIODICAL SERIES online here at Columbia--what a mess the database is.  You get things that have nothing to do with "pooch."  Sometimes you get "pouch."
   I have "hot pooch" for "hot dog," but I forget the date for that.

   17 June 1919, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 18:
   Our favorite of the many sorry attempts was the sorry pooch, or towser, impersonated by Phil Dwyer, than whom no dog was ever doggier.