英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

dodo (n.)[dodo 词源字典]: 1620s, from Portuguese doudo "fool, simpleton," an insult applied by Portuguese sailors to the awkward bird (Didus ineptus) they found on Mauritius island. The last record of a living one is from 1681. Applied in English to stupid persons since 1886.[dodo etymology, dodo origin, 英语词源]
doe (n.): Old English da "a female deer," of unknown origin, perhaps a Celtic loan-word (compare Cornish da "fallow deer," Old Irish dam "ox," Welsh dafad "sheep").
doer (n.): c. 1300, agent noun from do.
does: third person singular present of do (v.), originally a Northumbrian variant in Old English that displaced doth, doeth 16c.-17c.
doesn't: 1690s, contraction of does not.
doff (v.): mid-14c., contraction of do off, preserving the original sense of do as "put." At the time of Johnson's Dictionary [1755] the word was "obsolete, and rarely used except by rustics," but it was saved from extinction (along with don) by Sir Walter Scott. Related: Doffed; doffing.
dog (n.): Old English docga, a late, rare word, used in at least one Middle English source in reference to a powerful breed of canine. The word forced out Old English hund (the general Germanic and Indo-European word; see canine) by 16c. and subsequently was picked up in many continental languages (French dogue (16c.), Danish dogge, German Dogge (16c.)), but the origin remains one of the great mysteries of English etymology.

Many expressions -- a dog's life (c. 1600), go to the dogs (1610s), etc. -- reflect earlier hard use of the animals as hunting accessories, not pampered pets. In ancient times, "the dog" was the worst throw in dice (attested in Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit, where the word for "the lucky player" was literally "the dog-killer"), which plausibly explains the Greek word for "danger," kindynas, which appears to be "play the dog."

Slang meaning "ugly woman" is from 1930s; that of "sexually aggressive man" is from 1950s. Adjectival phrase dog-eat-dog attested by 1850s. Dog tag is from 1918. To dog-ear a book is from 1650s; dog-eared in extended sense of "worn, unkempt" is from 1894.
Notwithstanding, as a dog hath a day, so may I perchance have time to declare it in deeds. [Princess Elizabeth, 1550]
Phrase put on the dog "get dressed up" (1934) may look back to the stiff stand-up shirt collars that in the 1890s were the height of male fashion (and were known as dog-collars at least from 1883), with reference to collars worn by dogs. The common Spanish word for "dog," perro, also is a mystery word of unknown origin, perhaps from Iberian. A group of Slavic "dog" words (Old Church Slavonic pisu, Polish pies, Serbo-Croatian pas) likewise are of unknown origin.
dog (v.): "to track like a dog," 1510s, see dog (n.). Related: Dogged; dogging.
dog days (n.): 1530s, from Latin dies caniculares, from Greek; so called because they occur around the time of the heliacal rising of Sirius, the Dog Star (kyon seirios). Noted as the hottest and most unwholesome time of the year; usually July 3 to Aug. 11, but variously calculated, depending on latitude and on whether the greater Dog-star (Sirius) or the lesser one (Procyon) is reckoned.

The heliacal rising of Sirius has shifted down the calendar with the precession of the equinoxes; in ancient Egypt c. 3000 B.C.E. it coincided with the summer solstice, which also was the new year and the beginning of the inundation of the Nile. The "dog" association apparently began here (the star's hieroglyph was a dog), but the reasons for it are obscure.
dog leg (n.): "something bent like a dog's hind leg," 1703. Originally of a type of staircase.
doge (n.): "chief magistrate of Venice or Genoa," 1540s, from Venetian dialect doge, from Latin ducem, accusative of dux "leader" (see duke (n.)).
dogfight (n.): "aerial combat," World War I air forces slang, from earlier meaning "riotous brawl" (1880s); from dog (n.) + fight (n.). The literal sense of "a fight among or between dogs" is from 1650s.
dogfish (n.): a name for various types of small shark, late 15c., dokefyche, from dog (n.) + fish (n.). Said to be so called because they hunt in packs. This was the image of sharks in classical antiquity as well.
But in the Mediterranean, among the Greeks and Romans of antiquity, closer contact with sharks had left an impression of vicious dogs of the sea. Thus, Pliny's canis marinus. The metaphor of the dog spread to the North to dominate the European image of the shark, from the Italian pescecane and French chien de mer to the German Meerhund and Hundfisch and English sea dog and dogfish. [Tom Jones, "The Xoc, the Sharke and the Sea Dogs," in "Fifth Palenque Round Table, 1983," edited by Virginia M. Field, 1985.]
dogged (adj.): "having the qualities of a dog" (mostly in a negative sense), c. 1300, from dog (n.). Meaning "persistent" is from 1779. Hence doggedly (late 14c.), "cruelly, maliciously;" later "with a dog's persistence" (1773). Related: Doggedness.
dogger (n.): "two-masted fishing boat," used in North Sea fishery, mid-14c., which is of unknown origin. It likely is the source of the name Dogger Bank (1660s) for the great banks of shoals in the North Sea.
doggerel: late 14c. (adj.); 1630s (n.), "Any rhyming verse in which the meter is forced into metronomic regularity by the stressing of normally unstressed syllables and in which rhyme is forced or banal" [Miller Williams, "Patterns of Poetry"]. probably from dog (n.) + pejorative suffix -rel and applied to bad poetry perhaps with a suggestion of puppyish clumsiness, or being fit only for dogs. Attested as a surname from mid-13c., but the sense is not evident.
doggone (adj.): 1851, American English, a "fantastic perversion of god-damned" [Weekley]. But Mencken favors the theory that it is "a blend form of dog on it; in fact it is still often used with it following. It is thus a brother to the old English phrase, 'a pox upon it,' but is considerably more decorous."
doggy (n.): also doggie, 1825, from dog (n.) + -y (3). Doggy-bag attested from 1965. As an adj. doggy is attested from late 14c., from -y (2). The word has been used in various formations since at least late 19c. to describe the sex act when one partner is on all fours.
doghouse (n.): 1610s, from dog (n.) + house (n.). Originally a kennel; the backyard type, for a single animal, is late 19c. Figurative sense of "disgrace" is from 1932.
dogie (n.): "motherless calf in a herd," 1887, cowboy slang, of uncertain origin.