Ety: "dogie"

[Jonathan Lighter]

DARE ventures to suggest an adaptation of English "doggy." ( I report; you decide.)

The "assurance" (a word meant to be somewhat hyperbolical) came from a senior colleague (not a linguist or lexicographer I must say) with some first-hand knowledge of
ranching in the West in the '30s and '40s. He was under the impression that the "dogal" etymon was now becoming generally accepted.

Perhaps this website, somehow connected with the U. of New Mexico, has played a role in promoting the idea:

http://www.unm.edu/~gabbriel/index.html .

Here's a rationalized/fantasized connection, from http://www.cowboyshowcase.com/glossarycattle.htm  :

Dogie:  (pronounced with a long "o" as in "own," not as in the pet animal named "Spot.")  A calf with no mother.  Term used more often in Texas.  Derived from the Spanish word "dogal" meaning a short rope used to keep a calf away from its mother during milking.

This is all prima facie unlikely, and much more so if "dogal" has not been used to mean "calf" or something similar in Mexico or the Southwest. I'd just like some opinions from those who know more about Mexican or Southwestern Spanish than I do.

At any rate, we should probably brace ourselves for further confident assertions that "dogie" is from "dogal."

JL








"Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Douglas G. Wilson"
Subject: Re: Ety: "dogie"
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>I once very tentatively endorsed the possibility that Western "dogie" had
>an African etymon. Now I'm assured that it comes from Spanish "dogal,"
>meaning a halter for an animal.

Assured by whom? I am assured by the respected AHD (inter alia) that "mutt"
< "muttonhead". Do I believe it? Not without a good paper trail.

Isn't "doughguts" at least a reasonable guess for the etymon of "dogie"? In
the newspapers from 1897 I see a description of the orphaned dogy and how
pudgy it gets from eating grass instead of milk (protein deficiency?).

I don't know about the African possibility.

"Dogal" means "halter" or so in Spanish all right, and it's been around for
a long time. But why should it be a good candidate etymon? Why not English
"doggy" instead, for example? If it is asserted that the dogies were
characteristically led on leashes or something like that (I would believe
this sort of story only with documentation), maybe we could take that to
support the "doggy" etymology as well as the "dogal" one ... or if you like
Spanish, consider Spanish "dogo", = "bulldog" or so. (I am not seriously
suggesting these notions.)

-- Doug Wilson


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