Etymologically
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terrier

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈtɛɹiə/[1]

terrier1 dog

Etymology

The dog is inherited from Middle English terrier, also terrere and terrour,[2] borrowed from Anglo-Norman terrer, a noun recorded from 1354 for a breed of dog bred to flush out or pursue burrowing animals, together with terrier, an adjective used of the breed in chien terrier (“earth dog”) from before 1376.[3][4][5][6] Continental French used terrier alone as a noun for the dog only much later, from 1690.[3] The French adjective is from Medieval Latin terrārius (“of the earth”),[4][6][7][8] which was itself used as a noun for the dog in a British source of 1210,[3] from Latin terra (“earth”),[4][6][9] which the American Heritage Dictionary traces to Proto-Indo-European *ters-.[6] The French word for dog, chien, is from canis.[9][10] The dog is so called because it pursues foxes, badgers and other quarry into their earths or burrows.[4][5][3] Old French terrier also meant the earth or hole of a rabbit or fox,[4] and English had this sense too, once, in Caxton's translation of Aesop's fables (1484).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small hunting dog that goes into the earth after its quarry: about 1410, in The Master of Game by Edward, Duke of York, which speaks of small curs that "fallen to be terryers".[2][3][5] Barnhart finds the word earlier as the surname Terrier, in 1166.[11][5]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline describes the breeds as typically small, active and hardy, and noted for their courage;[4] Merriam-Webster notes that they are now kept chiefly as pets, though bred to dig for small game and drive it out of its hole.[9] From 1532, in More's Confutation of Tyndale, a terrier could also be a tenacious, eager or energetic person, or someone who looked like one of the dogs.[3][12] Johnson (1755) defined it as a dog that follows its game underground, quoting Dryden.[13] The terrier beaver, a beaver that burrows instead of building a lodge, follows French castor terrier (1734).[3] In 1907 the word became a colloquial name for a member of the Territorial Army, punning on the name;[3][12] Weekley dates this coinage to 1908.[14] The verb, to burrow like a terrier, is recorded from 1864.[3] In Scots and Cumberland dialect a terrier was also a keeper of terriers, and figuratively a bad-tempered, quarrelsome man.[15]

Timeline

  • 1166 – the surname Terrier.[5]
  • c. 1410 – a small dog that hunts burrowing animals.[2][3][5]
  • 1484 – an earth or burrow, especially a fox's (obsolete).[3]
  • 1532 – figurative, a tenacious or eager person.[3]
  • 1734 – terrier beaver, a burrowing beaver.[3]
  • 1864 – verb, to burrow like a terrier.[3]
  • 1907 – a member of the Territorial Army.[3] Weekley dates it to 1908.[14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A dog of any of several usually small, active breeds first bred to hunt foxes, badgers and other animals that live in burrows: The wiry terrier dug furiously at the rabbit hole.[7][9][3]
  2. A tenacious, eager or energetic person.[12][3]
  3. (British, informal) A member of the Territorial Army or its successor reserve.[7][12][3]

Word family

  • terrierlike
  • terrierman
  • Airedale terrier
  • Bedlington Terrier
  • Boston terrier
  • bull terrier
  • fox terrier
  • Irish terrier
  • Jack Russell terrier
  • Kerry blue terrier

terrier2 register of land

Etymology

The register of land is partly borrowed from Middle French terrier (“rent roll”), recorded in Middle French from 1456 or earlier and in Old French as tierier from 1241, a derivative of terre (“earth”).[3][16][8] Partly it is borrowed from Medieval Latin terrārium (“register of landed property, rent roll”), recorded in British sources from 1316, a noun use of terrārius (“earthly; landowning”),[3] from Latin terra (“earth, land”).[3][7][8] Middle French also had registre terrier (1474) and later papier terrier (1573) in the same sense.[3][17] Merriam-Webster and Klein derive the word, through French, from liber terrārius (“book relating to land”).[9][10] The same Medieval Latin adjective gave the dog's name, terrier1.[3][16]

Earliest recorded meaning

A register of landed property listing the tenants and their holdings, services and rents: 1477, in a letter of W. Paston in the Paston Letters.[3] The Shorter Oxford dates the word to the late 15th century.[8]

Semantic evolution

The early terriers were rent rolls, listing vassals and tenants with their holdings, services and rents; in later use a terrier described the lands of a person or body by site, boundaries and acreage, and above all the property of a parish church.[3][9] Johnson (1755) gave "a survey or register of lands" as the word's second sense, quoting the canons of King James that required bishops to procure terriers.[13] From 1634 it was also used of a survey or register in general, now rare.[3] Collins labels the word as English legal history and the Concise Oxford as historical.[7][12] Wright records it, already obsolete, from Cheshire, Lincolnshire, Rutland and Sussex, also in the forms tarrier and tarry.[15]

Timeline

  • 1477 – a register of landed property; a rent roll.[3]
  • 1634 – extended, a survey or register (now rare).[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (historical) A register of landed property, originally listing the vassals and tenants with their holdings, services and rents; a rent roll.[9][3][12]
  2. A register describing the lands of a person or corporation by site, boundaries and acreage, especially the property of a parish church.[9][3]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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)
  3. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  12. ^ a b c d e f Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b 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 Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  15. ^ 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)
  16. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  17. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House