# multiple words for dog



## francisgranada

Hello.

I've noticed that in some languages there are two words for _dog_, one "older" and one "newer". The "newer" has, at least partially, replaced the other one and is used more commonly. Examples:

English: hound, dog
Hungarian: eb, kutya
Spanish: can, perro 
Russian: пес, собака (pes, sobaka) 

Do you know about other laguages with two (or more) words for _dog_?
(different names for the female and the pups do not count)


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## Maroseika

Hungarian kutya is definitely of Slavic origin, and there is a cognate in Russian too: кутя, кутёнок (puppy).
As for Russian собака, it is of Turcic or Iranian origin, while пес is much more ancient, and the  newer word is really more common, while the older one mostly mean only a male dog. Is the situation the same in Hungarian?


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## DearPrudence

In *French*, I would say we just have one 'neutral' word: "*un chien*"
And for a big, scary guard dog: "*un molosse*" (from Greek _molossos, _from the area of Molosses, reknown their huntings dog & guard dogs apparently)
Then, in slang, we have:
*"un clébard, un clebs, un cabot*"


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## francisgranada

Maroseika said:


> Hungarian kutya is definitely of Slavic origin ...


Not definitely ... According to this dictionary _kutya _is of onomatopoeic origin and similar words are present independently in other languages, too. Furhermore, this word does not exist in all the Slavic languages. _Eb_ is of Finno-Ugric, or at least Ugric origin.


> As for Russian собака, it is of Turcic or Iranian origin, while пес is much more ancient, and the  newer word is really more common, while the older one mostly mean only a male dog. Is the situation the same in Hungarian?


In Hungarian today in the everyday speech practically only_ kutya_ is used. _Eb _is present in many phrases, proverbs etc. and also in the burocratical language (e.g. _ebadó_ - tribute/tax for holding a dog). _Eb _may be sometimes (though rarely) used also colloquially, in a negative sense ("big, ugly, dangerous ...dog").


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## Rallino

In *Turkish*: it or köpek

_Köpek_ is the natural word_, _while _it _is more slang.


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## dihydrogen monoxide

BCS has many words for dog:
a) pas (neutral form)
b) cuko (affectionate word, mainly in Bosnia)
c) šćene (slightly offensive word,puppy)
d) džukela (offensive word)
e) kućka (I think only Serbian)

As far Slovene goes I know of:
a) pes (neutral word)
b) kuža (affectionate word)
c) ščene (it's a synonym for dog or a small dog (pejorative))
d) mrcina (offensive)


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## francisgranada

Doesn't šćene/štene mean the whelp of the dog? (in Slovak šteňa is puppy)


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## apmoy70

Greek has two "old" words for dog; the second is informal and has replaced in the varnacular the other "old" word (which nowadays has become its formal name):

1-Formal name: *«Κύων»* ['ci.on] (masc.) < Classical masc. noun *«κύων» kúōn* --> _dog_ (PIE +*ḱwṓ- / *ḱuon-, _dog_ cf Skt. श्वन् (zvan), _dog_; Lat. canis > It. cane, Spanish can, Por. cão, Fr. chien, Rom. cǫini, Eng. canine; Lith. šuō)

2-Informal/vernacular name: *«Σκύλος»* ['scilos] (masc.) < Koine masc. noun *«σκύλος» skúlŏs* & *«σκύλλος» skúllŏs* --> _young dog, puppy_ < Classical masc. noun *«σκύλαξ» skúlāks* (with the same meaning). The name *«σκύλος» skúlŏs* has replaced in the vernacular the name *«κύων» kúōn* at least since Hellenistic times (as Hesychius the Alexandrian attests): «*σκύλον* τὸν _κύνα_ λέγουσιν» ("they (the mainland Greeks) name the _κύων_, *σκύλος*) with obscure etymology, possibly of pre-Greek origin (although its similarity to the Lithuanian _skalikas_, barking dog, is striking)


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## Maroseika

francisgranada said:


> Not definitely ... According to this dictionary _kutya _is of onomatopoeic origin and similar words are present independently in other languages, too. Furhermore, this word does not exist in all the Slavic languages.



Maybe this is really just a coincidence, of course, but Hungarian word looks a bit strange among IE cognates. This word exists in Bulgarian, Polish, Slovac, Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian, all Eastern Slavic, also Latvian, Albanian, Ossetian and Kurdish, but not in German, for example. With all that Komi and Udmurts words are reckoned to be loaned from Russian.
Anyway, I'm not a specialists, so cannot insist.


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## francisgranada

1. I do not insist either, of course  ... I know about the possible Slavic origin, as one of the alternatives to be taken in consideration. However, in the proper Hungarian there are many dialectal variants of this word that cannot be "simply"  explained as different phonetical realizations of a presupposed Slavic loanword (e.g. "kuťa").

2. Do the Albanian, Ossetic, Kurdish, Latvian, but also Turkic (kuç, ukuç) variants come also from Slavic, or they are independent words or loanwords, e.g. from Turkic? (as the common IE origin seems not probable).

3. I have never heard any Slovak word similar to _kutya _meaning "dog". However, theorically I can imagine a Slovak dialectal word like this,  but in such case the possibility of Hungarian origin has to be taken in consideration, as well. In other words, if we find the word "kuťa" (or something similar) only in a particular Slovak dialect, then it is quite probable that it is a loanword from Hungarian.


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## ThomasK

Dutch: normally *hond *(affectionately: hondje, diminutive). 

_Dog _is not impossible but only in the names of certain dogs: _Deense doggen_, Danish dogs... 

You could of course add special kinds of dogs, male/ female, etc.


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## SuperXW

Interesting, Chinese also has two words for "dog".
"Older" (the classic, traditional, formal one): 犬 quan3
"Newer" (the common, modern and colloquial one): 狗 gou3


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## Gavril

Welsh:
*ci* "dog", *bytheiad* "hound" (= a type of dog specialized for hunting)

Another term for hound is *helgi* = _hel_- "hunt" + -_ci_ "dog".


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## dihydrogen monoxide

SuperXW said:


> Interesting, Chinese also has two words for "dog".
> "Older" (the classic, traditional, formal one): 犬 quan3
> "Newer" (the common, modern and colloquial one): 狗 gou3



Are there any derogative words for a dog? How do you call a pekingese dog and does it have perhaps the same name in other Chinese "dialects".


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## SuperXW

Derogative words? You meant like dirty words?
狗 (the "newer" and colloquial word for "dog") itself is a common insulting metaphor to name the people you hate.
For a Pekingese dog, usually we'll think of 京巴 (jing1ba1, literally "Beijing Pug"), but some may argue whether it's the exact term for the exact breed. I don't want to talk too much on breeds and dialects. As you should know, the breeds' names changed from time to time, from place to place, as well as hundreds of dialects in China.


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## porkkanaraaste

Finnish

New: koira
Old: peni

Peni survives in folk poetry, compound words (peninkulma "distance a dog can be heard from" and derivatives (penikka "puppy", pentu "puppy, cub", penikoida "to pup"). Both words are Proto-Uralic, but koira means dog only in Finnic languages; in other languages it means "male (animal)" or some specific male animal like ox, drone etc.


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## dihydrogen monoxide

Do you happen to know if  peni survived in Finnish dialects?


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## francisgranada

porkkanaraaste said:


> ... koira means dog only in Finnic languages; in other languages it means "male (animal)" or some specific male animal like ox, drone etc.


Really interesting. The Hungarian cognate of _koira _is _here _that means "testicle". The supposed Uralic proto-word from which _koira, __here _etc_ ...  _derive is  _*koj/*koje _which meant "male" and later, in some Ugric languages, also "man" (as opposed to woman). In Hungarian this _*koj_ survives in the form _hím_ ("male"). 

This is a good example to illustrate how the meaning of a word can change during the millenia: _dog _in one language and _testicle _in an other laguage ...      

As to my original question, it's also interesting, that the phenomenon of replacing an "original (older)" word for _dog _with a "newer" one in various languages (independently) is not as rare/exceptional as one might think  ...


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## aruniyan

In Tamil Dog is *Naai*.

The Naa represent *Naarram*(smell), _seeking_ as related to word _nose_ in English.


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## porkkanaraaste

dihydrogen monoxide said:


> Do you happen to know if  peni survived in Finnish dialects?



I'm not sure but I think no.


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## porkkanaraaste

francisgranada said:


> Really interesting. The Hungarian cognate of _koira _is _here _that means "testicle". The supposed Uralic proto-word from which _koira, __here _etc_ ...  _derive is  _*koj/*koje _which meant "male" and later, in some Ugric languages, also "man" (as opposed to woman). In Hungarian this _*koj_ survives in the form _hím_ ("male").



My Finnish etymological dictionary mentions Hungarian _here_ meaning 1) male animal (_koiras_ in Finnish!) 2) drone i.e. male wasp 3) testicle. Is it correct?


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## francisgranada

Only the 2) and 3), at least today. Male animal is _hím. 
_
If _-s _in _koira*s* _is the same suffix as in _sarva*s* _(Hung. _szarva*s*_), than by analogy _heré*s*_ with a bit of phantasy (only in theory) could also mean _male animal _. In fact, _herés _is an existing adjective from _here _(testicle).


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## oveka

Ukrainian: кутя, цуценя, щеня, цуцик, пес, собака /kutya, tsutsenya, shchenya, tsutsyk, pes, sobak/.


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## Kotlas

francisgranada said:


> Russian: пес, собака (pes, sobaka)


There is also:
псина ['psina]


Maroseika said:


> Hungarian kutya is definitely of Slavic origin, and there is a cognate in Russian too: кутя, кутёнок (puppy).


There's another word for a puppy in Russian: щенок [shche'nok]
We have a jocular proverb with this word:
Маленькая собачка — до старости щенок. A small dog stays a puppy its entire life. ['malen'kaya sa'bachka - do 'starasti shche'nok.]


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## Dymn

*Catalan*:

_ca _(< Latin _canem_): used in Balearic Islands, dated elsewhere
_gos _(< from _gus/cus_, the sound one uses to call a dog): used in the continent

As for "bitch, female dog":

_cussa_: Balearic Islands
_gossa_: elsewhere


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## Olaszinhok

In Italian we have *cane* (male dog) and *cagna* (female dog) but we use a lot of diminutive and augmentative nouns such as:
*cagnolino, cagnetto, canino, cagnolone, cagnettino, cagnone,* *cagnaccio *etc.


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## KalAlbè

In Portuguese:
*Cão -* A bit more formal I'd say, but let's wait for natives to confirm.
*Cachorro* - Everyday term

Haitian Creole:
Only *chen*


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## ansuya_s

In Malayalam 

Naya - formal
Patti - Everyday term


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## KalAlbè

francisgranada said:


> English: hound, dog



English also has *pooch* as a slang word for dog.


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## Kotlas

What about these English terms for inferior dogs:
mutt
mongrel
cur

In Russian those would be:
cur - шавка ['shafka]
mutt - собачонка [saba'chonka]
mongrel - дворняжка [dvar'nyashka]


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## apmoy70

Kotlas said:


> What about these English terms for inferior dogs:
> mutt
> mongrel
> cur


They're in Greek:

Mutt, cur: *«Κόπρος»* [ˈkopros] (masc.) or *«κοπρίτης»* [koˈpritis] (masc.), *«κοπρίτισσα»* [koˈpritisa] (fem.) < Byz.Gr. name of the stray dog with doubtful pedigree *«κόπρος» kópros* (masc.), *«κοπρίτισσα» koprítissa* (fem.) < Classical fem. noun *«κόπρος» kóprŏs* --> _dung, excrement, ordure, filth_ (PIE *ḱokʷ-r- _dung_ cf Skt. शकृत् (śakṛt), _dung_, Lith. šikti, _to shit_).
Mongrel:
(A) *«Ημίαιμος»* [iˈmi.emos] (masc. & fem.) < Byz. Gr. masc. & fem. adj. *«ἡμίαιμος» ēmía̯imos* --> _(for animals) of mixed race/blood_  < Classical comp. element _half_, *«ἡμί-» hēmí-* (PIE *sēmi- old inherited IE word for _half_) + Classical neut. noun *«αἷμα» ha̯îmă* --> _blood_ (with obscure etymology).
(B) *«Μπάσταρδος»* [ˈbastarðos] (masc.) --> _bastard_ < It. bastardo.

Let me also add a couple of words for dog:
-Hound dog is *«κυνηγόσκυλο»* [ciniˈɣoscilo] (neut.) < neut. noun *«κυνήγι»* [ciˈniʝi] --> _hunt, chase_ < Classical neut. noun *«κυνήγιον» kŭnḗgiŏn** --> _hunt, chase, beast-hunt, prey, game_ + Koine masc. noun *«σκύλος» skúlŏs* --> _young dog, puppy_, later, _dog in general_ (see my previous post)).
Alternatively, the name *«κυνηγιάρης»* [ciniˈʝaɾis] (masc.) is used in some dialects.

-Sheepdog is *«τσοπανόσκυλο»* [ʦ͡opaˈnoscilo] (neut.) < rustic name of shepherd, *«τσoπάνης»* [ʦ͡oˈpanis] (masc.) < Turk. çoban [ʦ͡oˈban], _shepherd_ + *«σκύλος»*.

***Classical masc. noun *«κύων» kúōn* --> _dog_ (see my previous post) + Classical v. *«ἄγω» ắgō* --> _to drive, lead, bring, carry, draw_ (PIE *h₂eǵ-_ to drive, lead_ cf Skt. अजति (ajati), _to drive, throw_, Lat. agere).


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## Encolpius

Maroseika said:


> in Russian too: кутя, кутёнок (puppy).



Hello, are those common words? What's the difference between кутёнок and щенок?


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## Ghabi

SuperXW said:


> "Older" (the classic, traditional, formal one): 犬 quan3
> "Newer" (the common, modern and colloquial one): 狗 gou3


It may be added that both words are very old; it's just that the latter has become the normal word for "dog" in most dialects. Ancient philologists defined 狗 as a "puppy" in contrast to a "dog" 犬 ( and 狗 may thus be related to 駒 "foal").

犬 *khwen is a favourite word among those who propose a relationship, at least some ancient contact, between Chinese and the Indo-European languages, seizing upon the superficial resemblance between it and IE words like κύων.


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## Circunflejo

francisgranada said:


> Spanish: can, perro



There's also _chucho_.


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## Sardokan1.0

*Sardinian :*

*cane *= dog
*jàgaru *= hunting dog (similar to Basque "Zakur", Corsican "Ghjàcaru", Albanian "Zagar", German "Jäger" = hunter; perhaps a pre-IE voice)
*cateddu *= little dog (Latin "catellus")
*caciucciu *= little dog (similar to Spanish "chucho", identical pronunciation)


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