It's January. So of course it has been darned cold lately. It's even been moderately unpleasant in the UK, which has prompted at least one of my friends to jaunt off to the warmth of the Canary Islands.
Oddly, while there are canaries on the Canary Islands, the bird is named after the location, not the other way around. While the islands are named after dogs. Maybe.
The islands have been known, if not known well, from far into antiquity. It would be hard to miss them, as the ones nearest to the African coast are visible from same on clear days. Exactly who came and went - Greeks, Phoenicians, etc. - is somewhat obscure, but the Romans for sure were there for a while at least to do a bit of trading with the locals and collect material for making dye. They were called the "The Fortunate Isles" in Classical Texts, although it is the Latin Canarie Insulae, or Island of the Dogs, that has stuck.
Was it a reference to actual dogs? Maybe, they do get around. Or as some speculate to monk seals, aka "sea dogs", which laze around on the beach in a fashion not without parallel in modern British tourists.
And to be clear to my wide traveling friend Anthea, not trying to draw any direct comparison.
It got me thinking about how the Latin word for dog has not survived much into our modern world. Maybe that which is right at our elbow becomes familiar and naturally picks up new names in every culture.
"Dog" is suggested to come from "docga" a middle English word that is somewhat suspiciously described as "rare". It nudged out the Germanic word "hund", still current in that language and which survives as "hound".
When conversing about our dog Hank I try to use words other than dog, as he knows that one. Some of the other terms and their origins:
"Cur" from the Low German "korren". The name is said to be echoic, which means it imitates the growling of a dog.
"Mutt", seems to be a shortened version of "mutton head", a term less used with changing diets, but designating a dummy with either two or four legs.
"Mongrel" sounds a little unkind, but other than the Latin is perhaps the oldest word of the lot. It comes from Proto-German "managjan", which meant to mix together. Eventually this went through Old English "gemong" and gave us both "among" and "mingling. The Modern German word "mischling" to mean a mixture of various dog genetics preserves this long and distinguished concept.
Anyway. It's cold. The dog wants to go out anyway, and I wish I were on a tropical island off the coast of Africa looking at these cute little birds. I'd try to not annoy my fellow beach lollers with etymology lectures. It's not what they are there for.
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