canine

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin canīnus (“of a dog”),^[2][3][4][5] perhaps partly through French canin,^[6][7][8][9] from canis (“dog”) and the suffix -īnus.^[5][9][3] Latin canis is the source of cane and chien, and comes from Proto-Indo-European *kwon- (“dog”),^[10][4] and is related to hound;^[11][3] Klein lists Gothic 𐌷𐌿𐌽𐌳𐍃 (hunds) and Old English hund among its cognates.^[11][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A canine tooth: before 1425, in a translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie (caniniez), probably under the influence of the Latin word in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew (before 1398), where the teeth that are canini are glossed houndisch.^[3][12] The OED's first record of the tooth sense is 1607, in Topsell's Historie of Foure-footed Beastes.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word was a term of anatomy for the pointed tooth between the incisors and the premolars,^[12][3] which English also called the long teeth from the late 14th century.^[10] The adjective "of or like a dog" appears in 1607 in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster,^[3][5] and in 1623 in the OED, with canine appetite or canine hunger, a voracious hunger, from 1609.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave both "having the properties of a dog" and the tooth sense.^[13] The noun "a dog", often humorous, is recorded by the OED from 1863, by Barnhart and Etymonline from 1869.^[2][3][10]

Timeline

• before 1425 – a canine tooth.^[3][12]
• 1607 – of a tooth, pointed and set between the incisors and the molars.^[2][3]
• 1609 – canine appetite, voracious hunger.^[2]
• 1623 – of, belonging to, or like a dog.^[2]
• 1863 – a dog, often jocular.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, relating to or like a dog: canine loyalty.^[14][5][2]
2. Of or belonging to the Canidae, the family that includes dogs, wolves, jackals and foxes.^[14][5]
3. Of or relating to the canine teeth.^[14][2]

Noun

1. A canine tooth, one of the four pointed teeth between the incisors and the premolars.^[14][5][2]
2. A dog, or another member of the dog family: the shelter's newest canine.^[14][7][2]

Word family

• supercanine
• canine distemper
• canine tooth

Related words

• hound
• kennel
• canary
• cynic

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins