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Etymology and origin of the English word pug

Pronunciation

pug1 small dog

Confidence
Uncertain
First attested
1560s

Etymology

The dog takes its name from an older pug, a term of endearment and a name for an imp, a monkey or a small animal, of unknown origin.[2][3][4][5] Etymonline, Klein and Skeat see it as related to or a variant of puck,[6][7][8] and Merriam-Webster as perhaps an alteration of it,[5] but the OED thinks a sound change from puck unlikely and allows only an influence of that word on the sense "imp".[2] The OED instead compares the West Flemish pugge (“small; a small person”), also a pet name standing for a forename,[2][9] and the Shorter Oxford calls the word perhaps of Low Dutch origin.[9] Hoad doubts that all the senses belong to one word.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A term of endearment for a person: in the 1560s according to Etymonline;[6] the 1989 edition of the OED dated it to 1566, while the revised OED's first record is from 1580.[10][2] Green quotes "good pugges" from Whetstone's Promos and Cassandra (1578).[11]

Semantic evolution

The word was used in the 16th and 17th centuries for a dear one, a pet or a doll (1580–1680), a prostitute or mistress (1607–1708), a ship's boy (1589) and a bargeman, the Western pugs who brought barges down the Thames to London (1591).[2][12] From these the OED separates a group of senses for a small animal or imp: a hare, squirrel or other small animal in English dialect (1587), and a monkey (1598, in Florio).[2] Barnhart dates the sense "sprite, imp" to 1616 and "monkey" to 1664;[4] Thomas Heywood wrote in 1635 of devils "such as wee Pugs and hobgoblins call".[6] Johnson (1755) defined pug as an affectionate name for a monkey or anything dearly loved.[13] By 1731 Bailey's dictionary recorded Pug as a nickname for a monkey or dog, and pug-dog for the small breed appears in 1749;[4][6] Merriam-Webster dates the dog to 1751.[14] Weekley thinks the use as a pet name is the main reason for the dog's name;[15] Skeat quotes Wedgwood that the pug has a short, monkey-like face.[8] Pug nose (1778) was named after the nose of the monkey or the dog.[4] The 19th century added a genus of moths,[3] and the servants' word pug for an upper servant in a large house (1843 in Etymonline, 1847 in the OED).[6][2] In New England, the Great Lakes region and California, a pug is a bun or knot of hair.[16][14]

Timeline

  • 1560s – a term of endearment.[6][17]
  • 1587 – in dialect, a hare, squirrel or other small animal.[2]
  • 1591 – a bargeman on the Thames.[2][12]
  • 1598 – a monkey (obsolete by 1817).[2]
  • 1607 – a prostitute or mistress (obsolete by 1708).[2]
  • 1616 – a sprite, imp.[4]
  • 1731 – a nickname for a monkey or dog.[4]
  • 1749 – pug-dog, the small breed of dog.[4][6]
  • 1778 – pug nose.[4]
  • 1847 – an upper servant in a large household.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small, sturdy dog of an Asian breed, with a smooth short coat, a tightly curled tail and a flat, wrinkled face: Their pug snored on the sofa all afternoon.[18][5][14]
  2. A pug nose.[14]
  3. A bun or knot of hair.[14][16]
  4. A small moth of the geometrid family, mostly of the genus Eupithecia.[18][3]
  5. (obsolete, 1580–1680) A term of endearment; a dear one or pet.[2][5]
  6. (obsolete, 1607–1708) A mistress or prostitute.[2][5]
  7. (obsolete, 1598–1817) A monkey.[2][5]
  8. (obsolete) A hobgoblin or imp.[5][4]

Word family

  • puggish
  • pugginess
  • pug nose
  • pug-nosed

pug2 clay; to knead clay

Confidence
Uncertain
First attested
1802

Etymology

The verb is of uncertain origin.[2][9][14][17] The OED compares a southern regional Dutch puggen (“to hit hard”), perhaps imitative, or else poke;[2] the Shorter Oxford compares the West Flemish pugge (“prod, kick, knock”).[9] The noun for prepared clay is apparently related to the verb,[2][9][15] although the OED is not certain that all the senses of the verb belong to one word.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To poke, punch or strike: 1802, in Middlesex Election by "Peter Pindar".[2] The OED's earlier edition dated this sense to 1809.[10]

Semantic evolution

From poking or thrusting the verb passed to packing a space, especially the space between floor joists, with earth, sawdust or similar material to deaden sound (1820),[2][5] and to working clay into a soft, even mass without air pockets for bricks or pottery (1843).[2][14] The noun for clay prepared in this way is recorded in the OED from 1853, in a Sussex glossary,[2] and in the Shorter Oxford from the early 19th century, first in the compound pug mill, the machine that mixes it.[9] In 1881 the verb was also used of cattle trampling ground into mud.[2] In English dialects pug is loam, clay or brick-earth prepared for moulding, and in several counties the verb means to thrash, poke or punch.[19]

Timeline

  • 1802 – verb, to poke, punch, strike.[2]
  • 1820 – to pack a space with clay, mortar or other material.[2][5]
  • 1843 – to knead and work clay for brickmaking or pottery.[2][14]
  • 1853 – noun, clay or loam prepared in this way.[2]
  • 1859 – a pug mill.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To work and mix wet clay into an even, workable mass, as for bricks or pottery: The potter pugged the reclaimed clay before throwing.[14][5][2]
  2. To fill or pack a space with clay, mortar or other material, especially under a floor to deaden sound.[5][2][9]
  3. (dialect) To poke, punch or strike.[2][9][19]

Noun

  1. Clay or loam that has been mixed and kneaded for making bricks or pottery.[2][9][5]
  2. A pug mill.[2][5]

Word family

  • pug mill
  • pugging

pug3 footprint

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1851
Borrowed from
Hindi पग
Ultimate origin
Hindi पग

Etymology

The footprint is borrowed from Hindi पग (pag, “foot, step, footprint”),[2][9][14][7][15] which Merriam-Webster gives as Hindi and Urdu.[14] The OED traces the Hindi word ultimately to a Sanskrit compound of the words for foot and end,[2] while the American Heritage Dictionary derives it probably from a Sanskrit word for footstep or foot, from the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *ped- of foot.[20]

Earliest recorded meaning

The footprint of an animal: 1851, in Fraser's Magazine.[2][5] Merriam-Webster dated it to 1865, as did the 1989 edition of the OED.[14][10]

Semantic evolution

In Anglo-Indian use it is the footprint of a wild beast,[7][15] also more fully pugmark.[2][9] Weekley quotes Kipling: "The marks of enormous pugs that ran...and disappeared in a narrow-mouthed cave".[15] The Shorter Oxford dates the verb, to track an animal or person by its footprints, to the mid 19th century;[9] the OED's record is from Baden-Powell's Pigsticking (1889).[2]

Timeline

  • 1851 – the footprint of an animal.[2][5]
  • 1889 – verb, to track by footprints.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (India) A footprint, especially of a wild animal; a pugmark.[14][5][2][7]

Verb

  1. To follow an animal or a person by its footprints.[5][9]

Word family

  • pugmark

Usage notes

Pug is also slang for a boxer, a clipping of pugilist (1857 in the OED).[2][5] Other dictionaries record further words of this spelling: pug, chaff or husks of grain (from about 1440, now dialect), and pug, to pull or tug (1575), both of unknown origin.[2][9][5]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  12. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W.; Mayhew, A. L. (1914), A Glossary of Tudor and Stuart Words, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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 f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  15. ^ a b c d e Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  16. ^ a b 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
  17. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  18. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  19. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  20. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Related etymologies

  • yoga · also from Hindi
  • chop · also from Hindi
  • raj · also from Hindi
  • loot · also from Hindi
  • pajamas · also from Hindi
  • chai · also from Hindi
  • cot · also from Hindi
  • cheetah · also from Hindi
Cite this entry

“Pug.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/pug. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

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