Dogge

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A large, powerful dog of a mastiff breed, typically muscular and used historically for hunting or guarding
2. A massive, heavy-set canine of the type bred for strength and protection, popular in medieval times
3. A large mastiff-like dog with a robust build, formerly common in Europe as a hunting and guard animal

Etymology: "Dogge" is the Middle English spelling of "dog," and the form shows how the word looked in the centuries after the Norman Conquer when English spelling was still settling. The Old English original was "docga" or "dogga," a word that appears in the language well before the Middle English period, and the medieval form "dogge" simply carried that root forward with a doubled consonant and a final "e" that English scribes used freely at the time. The word was in regular use across the Middle English period, when "dogge" covered the same animal we call a dog today. Modern English dropped the final "e" and settled on the single "g," so the spelling "dogge" now reads as an archaic or deliberately old-fashioned form, the kind of thing you would meet in older texts or in a deliberate attempt to sound medieval.