As known already to Albert Dauzat, a major source of names of adult domesticated animals is in the name of the young. Thus French poulet ‘chicken’, earlier ‘chick’; English chicken, earlier ‘chick’; French cochon: 1268-71 ‘young pig’ > 1611 ‘adult pig’; English pig , earlier > ‘young pig’; Chinese 豬 zhu1 ‘pig’, earlier ‘young pig’; Modern Greek σκυλί ‘dog’, < Classical Greek σκύλαξ ‘puppy’; Modern Chinese 狗 gou3 ‘dog’, earlier (c. 200 BCE) ‘hairless puppy’; etc.
This might be true of the English word dog too. The early meaning of ‘cub’ perhaps survives in the term dogies, referring to calves in the cowboy song Git along, little dogies (here).
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Laurent Sagart (May 4, 2020). Lockdown etymologies: dog. Sino-Tibetan-Austronesian. Retrieved April 28, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/ukcx