mutt

n. Informal

1. A mongrel dog.
2. A stupid person; a dolt.

[Short for MUTTONHEAD.]

WORD HISTORY   Clipping not of sheep but of a word having to do with sheep has given us our term mutt for a mongrel dog. Clipping or abbreviating words, a standard process of word formation, sheared mutt from muttonhead, a pejorative term meaning "a stupid person" based on the notion that sheep are stupid. Mutt in its first recorded use in 1901 is used in the same senses as muttonhead, but it is soon recorded (1904) as a term of contempt for a horse and then (1906) for a dog. We can be reasonably certain that the New Yorker critic writing in 1970 that "The cast includes a Sheepdog, . . . a Mutt Bitch," had no awareness that a sheepdog would make the ideal mutt.

Vernacular for dog.

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: an inferior dog or one of mixed breed
  Synonyms: cur, mongrel

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - fjols, køter (nedsætt.)

Nederlands (Dutch)
straathond, idioot

Français (French)
n. - clébard, corniaud

Deutsch (German)
n. - Köter, Schafskopf

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - κουτορνίθι, κοπρόσκυλο

Italiano (Italian)
cane bastardo

Português (Portuguese)
n. - cão vita-lata (m), tolo (m)

Русский (Russian)
дурак, собачонка

Español (Spanish)
n. - perro mestizo, bobo, tonto

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - fårskalle, hundracka

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
傻子, 狗, 笨蛋

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 傻子, 狗, 笨蛋

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 멍청이, 잡견

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - まぬけ, 雑種犬

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) غبي, جاهل‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮בור, טיפש, כלב, כלב בן תערובת‬

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