Comments on: Pooch http://www.word-detective.com/2011/09/pooch/ Semper Ubi Sub Ubi Wed, 20 Mar 2013 19:32:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: John Rudmin http://www.word-detective.com/2011/09/pooch/comment-page-1/#comment-53789 John Rudmin Mon, 07 Jan 2013 03:18:38 +0000 http://www.word-detective.com/?p=5566#comment-53789 Could it be from Hopi for dog = Pooko? Could it be from Hopi for dog = Pooko?

]]> By: Betsy http://www.word-detective.com/2011/09/pooch/comment-page-1/#comment-46079 Betsy Mon, 10 Dec 2012 22:10:31 +0000 http://www.word-detective.com/?p=5566#comment-46079 I have a possible explanation. The word for puppy in Italian is cucciolo, the pronunciation being cooch-oh-lo, accent on the first syllable. So the "cooch" rhymes with pooch. Now in some of the Italian dialects, they will sometimes truncate a word, and it's very possible that some (or with usage) might have called a puppy a cooch, or at least cooch-a. Is it possible that this morphed into pooch somehow? The timing of it is right. By 1924 there would have been a lot of Italians having immigrated into the US. I'll betcha that's what happened. What do you think? I have a possible explanation. The word for puppy in Italian is cucciolo, the pronunciation being cooch-oh-lo, accent on the first syllable. So the “cooch” rhymes with pooch. Now in some of the Italian dialects, they will sometimes truncate a word, and it’s very possible that some (or with usage) might have called a puppy a cooch, or at least cooch-a. Is it possible that this morphed into pooch somehow? The timing of it is right. By 1924 there would have been a lot of Italians having immigrated into the US. I’ll betcha that’s what happened.

What do you think?

]]> By: Yael http://www.word-detective.com/2011/09/pooch/comment-page-1/#comment-15379 Yael Tue, 22 Mar 2011 11:43:46 +0000 http://www.word-detective.com/?p=5566#comment-15379 Thank you! I forwarded your answer to my sister, and she was very happy (as was I). Just wanted to add: I remembered the ADS-L some time after I sent out this question, and tried searching there. Obviously, I can't tell the plausibility of the suggested explanations as well as you can, so I trust you saying that the 'pooch dog = pocket dog' explanation is the most plausible one, but one of the explanations that seemed quite interesting to me was the suggestion it might have come from the word 'poonch' in one of the Hindi languages meaning 'tail', which was accompanied by a claim that 'Poonch' was a common name for dogs in India. I have no way of checking the veracity of this claim, though - and I don't even remember what dialect was mentioned, so not sure if I could even find the 'poonch=tail' thing anywhere. Have you seen this explanation? What do you think about it? Thank you! I forwarded your answer to my sister, and she was very happy (as was I).
Just wanted to add: I remembered the ADS-L some time after I sent out this question, and tried searching there. Obviously, I can’t tell the plausibility of the suggested explanations as well as you can, so I trust you saying that the ‘pooch dog = pocket dog’ explanation is the most plausible one, but one of the explanations that seemed quite interesting to me was the suggestion it might have come from the word ‘poonch’ in one of the Hindi languages meaning ‘tail’, which was accompanied by a claim that ‘Poonch’ was a common name for dogs in India. I have no way of checking the veracity of this claim, though – and I don’t even remember what dialect was mentioned, so not sure if I could even find the ‘poonch=tail’ thing anywhere. Have you seen this explanation? What do you think about it?

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