docga

Old English

Alternative forms

• dogga

Etymology

Unknown origin. There are several theories, none with much evidence. Possibly a diminutive of dox (“dark, dusky”) +‎ -ga (diminutive suffix) (similar to frox → frocga); or a clipping of a construction such as *hundocga, formed from hund in analogy with terms such as frocga or *picga; or a diminutive of *docce (“stump, dock, doll”). See dog.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdoɡ.ɡɑ/
• Rhymes: -oɡ.ɡɑ

Noun

docga m

1. (late hapax legomenon) a powerful kind of dog, a hound

Declension

Weak:

	singular	plural
nominative	docga	docgan
accusative	docgan	docgan
genitive	docgan	docgena
dative	docgan	docgum

Descendants

• Middle English: dogge, dog, doge, doke
  • English: dog (see there for further descendants)
  • Scots: dug
  • Yola: dug

See also

• hund

References

• Only attested once, where genitive plural docgena glosses Latin canum.
• “docga”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.