As you know by now, I am an amateur etymologist (ie, one who is probably wrong most of the time). And when I’m not tracing words from Western languages to Sanskrit, I like to ponder the languages I know best, which are English and German.
And it’s the little quirks that I enjoy.
Thus, for instance, it is no surprise at all that most Anglo-Saxon words in English have the same, or a very similar, root as their German equivalents:
- arm = Arm
- finger = Finger
- (to) begin = begin(nen)
- (to) bring = bring(en)
- and so on.
Slightly more interesting is the subtle but cumulatively substantive change in connotation of certain words that once (in the fifth century) were the same:
Thus:
- come = kom(men), and
- become = bekom(men)
But (and this has caused much humorous confusion), bekommen in German now means get, not become. Keep this in mind next time you hear a German tourist inquiring of his waiter whether he might please become a hot dog.
And here is the one that really puzzles me. Etymologically, it is obvious that
- dog = Dogge, and
- hound = Hund
Except that something strange has happened.
Dog is the generic English word for the entire species. But Dogge is the specific German words for just one breed within that species, the one English speakers call … the Great Dane (thus dragging a third Germanic nation into this).
Hund, meanwhile, is the German word for the species, whereas hound is a somewhat more specific English word for a type of dog used for hunting, such as this one:
Hannibal and Me: life lessons from history 
Is there a connection between “hund” and “hunt?”
It had not occurred to me until now, but apparently yes: From Old High German and Gothic, meaning:
“body of persons associated for the purpose of hunting with a pack of hounds”
To me, the expression to exchange marriage vows always conjures up an image of the bride and the groom barking at each other in church.
LOL.
But we should let others in on the joy:
To Germans, woof woof is wau wau (pronounced vow vow)
“Dog” is “God” spelled backwards.
This could be significant because there was a dog-headed god in Egyptian mythology called Anubis.
Since “hund backwards is “dnuh”, it’s therefore possible that “dnuh” means “God” in some foreign language somewhere.
I’ll investigate. If I find out something, I’ll report back.
Hunh? (as in “What you say?”, not the Magyar guy). Our JR Terrier understands me perfectly, but shows his Anglo-Saxon tenacity when patrolling (i.e., for rats, any varmint, really). “Terrier”, of course, comes from Latin “Terra” (or Fr. “terre”), meaning they “go to ground”, with great gusto into burrows etc., fearlessly. They are exceptionally smart, and although not a “dogge” in the strictest sense, he is a deity among dogs nonetheless, anagrammatically and otherwise – just ask him (he reminds me all the time). I can’t afford to let him learn about Anubis, though – he would expect obeisance and incite some pyramid scheme. Exploring etymology is like having Merlin, Athena and Tom Hanks at the same table. Most enjoyable discussion!
Yes, but what’s all this got to do with insects?
What indeed.
It … bugs me.
speaking of dogs, some of my friends in tanzania are german, and i’ve found i don’t get nearly as excited about “sausages” as they do. can’t tell you how disappointed i was to get a hot dog (which we can buy in the next town over) when i thought i was going to be served sausage (patty or link, i didn’t care — we have to make either from scratch).
Sausages, dogs and Germans in … Tanzania. Wow.