May 30, 2008
Dogies
We're getting the galleys ready for Angel Falling Softly and a reader points out that "dogie," as in "get along little dogies," is spelled with one "g." Seriously, I thought it was dog-related. You know, like that cat-herding commercial from EDS, only with canines. Maybe sheep dogs or something.
In other words, not this:
But this:
And thus another false etymology firmly implanted in the brain goes by the wayside.
In other words, not this:
dog·gy [daw-gee, dog-ee] –noun, plural -gies. a little dog or a puppy; a pet term for any dog.
But this:
do·gie [doh-gee] –noun Western U.S. a motherless calf in a cattle herd.
And thus another false etymology firmly implanted in the brain goes by the wayside.
Labels: angel falling softly, language
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I found this in the free dictionary:
Regional Note: In the language of the American West, a motherless calf is known as a dogie. In Western Words Ramon F. Adams gives one possible etymology for dogie, whose origin is unknown. During the 1880s, when a series of harsh winters left large numbers of orphaned calves, the little calves, weaned too early, were unable to digest coarse range grass, and their swollen bellies "very much resembled a batch of sourdough carried in a sack." Such a calf was referred to as dough-guts. The term, altered to dogie according to Adams, "has been used ever since throughout cattleland to refer to a pot-gutted orphan calf."
Regional Note: In the language of the American West, a motherless calf is known as a dogie. In Western Words Ramon F. Adams gives one possible etymology for dogie, whose origin is unknown. During the 1880s, when a series of harsh winters left large numbers of orphaned calves, the little calves, weaned too early, were unable to digest coarse range grass, and their swollen bellies "very much resembled a batch of sourdough carried in a sack." Such a calf was referred to as dough-guts. The term, altered to dogie according to Adams, "has been used ever since throughout cattleland to refer to a pot-gutted orphan calf."