[Ads-l] doggo = dog

[Barretts Mail]

The OED, Dictionary.com <http://dictionary.com/>, the HDAS, Wiktionary, and Merriam-Webster have “doggo” meaning “in hiding.”

None of those except Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/doggo <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/doggo>) have the meaning of “dog.”

According to "Mi Dog Guide" (https://midogguide.com/diseases/what-kind-of-dog-is-doggo.html <https://midogguide.com/diseases/what-kind-of-dog-is-doggo.html>), “doggo” was used in the early 1900s as a vocative for dogs. Certainly the word appears in a lot of Google Books in wha appear to be usage for people as well over the decades (I do not provide citations for this below).

The word seems to have taken off on the internet in just the past several years, apparently in conjunction with the rise of doggolingo (citation 4 below), a jargon used by cynophiles. While citations can be found before 2017, the YouTube hits really start about then and perhaps earlier citations can be considered nonce or playful usage. 

A glossary of doggolingo can be found in "DoggoLingo 101: Internet Language of the Dogs” by Patrick Mull (https://tinyurl.com/5f7jm3fp <https://tinyurl.com/5f7jm3fp>).

1. Counting on Frank
Rod Clement
1991
https://tinyurl.com/2p8dptfs <https://tinyurl.com/2p8dptfs>

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Frank will eat only Doggo dog food, so his human family must take along enough to keep him fed and fit for their vacation in Hawaii. Frank eats two cans of Doggo a day…
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2. Walking, a Moving Experience
Herbert W Hobler
1999
p 81
https://tinyurl.com/yck89cje <https://tinyurl.com/yck89cje>

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He introduced me to his Springer Spaniel Doggo. “Doggo?” said I…. “No,” he responded, “that’s the name for dog in Vietnamese.”
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3. Waiting For Doggo
Mark Mills
2014
https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Waiting_For_Doggo/CrWnAwAAQBAJ?hl=en <https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Waiting_For_Doggo/CrWnAwAAQBAJ?hl=en>

4. Dogs Are Doggos: An Internet Language Built Around Love For The Puppers
Jessica Boddy
23 Apr 2017
https://tinyurl.com/yc7x3ucz <https://tinyurl.com/yc7x3ucz>

5. How to Speak Doggo
L. M. Campbell
2019
https://www.google.ca/books/edition/How_to_Speak_Doggo/6lmPzAEACAAJ?hl=en <https://www.google.ca/books/edition/How_to_Speak_Doggo/6lmPzAEACAAJ?hl=en>

6. The Doggo Book
Alan Ira Gordon
2021
https://www.google.ca/books/edition/The_Doggo_Book/Q7s5zgEACAAJ?hl=en <https://www.google.ca/books/edition/The_Doggo_Book/Q7s5zgEACAAJ?hl=en>

Benjamin Barrett (he/his/him)
Formerly of Seattle, WA
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org