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dog O.E. docga, a late, rare word used of a powerful breed of canine. It forced out O.E. hund (the general Germanic and IE word; see canine) by 16c. and subsequently was picked up in many continental languages (cf. Fr. dogue, Dan. dogge), but the origin remains one of the great mysteries of English etymology.
Thus, in Old English, the nonspecific name for dog was 'hund' or 'hound', whereas the word 'dog' (docga in Old English) was the name of a powerful breed of dog, which the Continental languages borrowed to form dogue (French for mastiff), dogo (Spanish), Dogge (German).