dogfish

Etymology

It is formed from English dog + fish,^[2][3][1] in Middle English dokefyche^[4][5][6] and dogge fysch.^[3] The OED takes the sense of the fish, and the word's use as a term of abuse, as modelled on Latin canīcula (“dogfish or shark”), itself also a term of abuse, and compares canis marīnus, used by Pliny, and French chien de mer, a kind of shark, recorded from the 13th century in Old French.^[2] Etymonline reports that the fish is said to be so called because it hunts in packs,^[3] and it cites a 1985 paper by Tom Jones on the dog as the classical image of the shark, an image that spread north to Italian pescecane, German Meerhund and Hundfisch.^[3] Greek likewise used κύων (kúōn, “dog”) for dogfish and sharks, especially the smaller kinds.^[3] Compare γαλεός (galeós, “dogfish, shark”),^[3] which Etymonline suggests may be based on γαλέη (galéē, “weasel, marten”), also a fish name.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The small shark now called the lesser spotted dogfish: about 1450, in a Middle English collection of medical recipes,^[2] and mid-15th century in Etymonline.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word first named a small European shark, and by 1612, in Webster's White Divel, its flesh as food.^[2] From 1589, in Lyly's Pappe with Hatchet, it was also a term of abuse for a person, in use until 1858, as canīcula had been in Latin.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave it simply as another name for a shark.^[7] North American use widened the name to unrelated fishes, especially the bowfin and the mudminnow, from 1842, and to the mud puppy from 1877.^[2] The Dictionary of American Regional English has its first American quotation from 1674, for the sharks.^[8] Green's Dictionary of Slang records it from 1945, in the Baltimore Sun, for someone who preys on sailors, "a shark that walks like a man".^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – a small shark, the lesser spotted dogfish.^[2][3]
• 1589 – term of abuse for a person, in Lyly (obsolete by 1858).^[2]
• 1612 – the flesh of this shark as food.^[2]
• 1842 – various unrelated North American fishes, especially the bowfin.^[2]
• 1877 – the mud puppy, in American regional use.^[2]
• 1945 – American slang, a confidence trickster or parasite.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small spotted shark of the family Scyliorhinidae, especially the lesser spotted dogfish of European waters.^[10][2]
2. A small shark of the family Squalidae, especially the spiny dogfish, with a spine on each dorsal fin.^[10][4]
3. A small smooth-skinned shark of the family Triakidae, such as the smooth dogfish.^[10]
4. The flesh of such a shark as food.^[2]
5. (North America, regional) The bowfin or a similar unrelated fish, such as the central mudminnow.^[2][10]
6. (US, regional) The mud puppy, Necturus maculosus.^[2]
7. (US, slang) A confidence trickster or parasite.^[9]

Word family

• spiny dogfish
• smooth dogfish

Related words

• dog
• fish
• canicule

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
9. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins