What is the origin of the word puppy?

Answer 1

It took 3 years research to find the origin of the term puppy mill. As

you will see it has nothing to do with the milling of puppies but a turn of the century "nickname"
of one person to the other, which stuck and changed to morph into meaning

something different as today's usage. A term supplied by animal rights activists mistakenly

meaning the breeder or milling of dogs or puppies.
Tracing the term back into the 1930s, when commercial kennels were sanctioned by the USDA as a way for returning veterans to make money and raise "livestock".

I learned that a fellow called "Puppy Miller" was in the distant past
believed to have been a breeder of hunting dogs. Finding nothing in the 1930s in initial research. I worked backwards from there.

I wasn't able to find any trace of an early 20th century dog
breeder who called himself "Puppy Miller," but moving back in time I found
the alternate term "Doggy Miller." This circled
back to a fellow, in quite a different context which led me to the following:

There was a major league catcher from 1884 to 1896 called
Doggie Miller. He actually played pro ball from 1881 to 1903, and
finished his career as a hard-hitting minor league right fielder,
after having had a major league reputation as a relatively light
hitter.

SABR members eventually confirmed that Doggie Miller was in fact a
breeder of hunting dogs during the Baseball off-season & after his
playing career.

Here is the catch: Doggie Miller was well known to O. Robinson Casey, the 10-year
professional baseball player who founded the Humane Society of Central
New York. Their playing careers were simultaneous, except that Doggie
Miller lasted a bit longer.

Casey, a power hitter who often struck out, was widely
believed to have inspired "Casey At The Bat." He identified himself
as the legendary Casey, and was a very popular public speaker until
he died on the job in 1932, while investigating a horse neglect case.

Casey, an early critic of commercial dog breeding, apparently
referred to Mr. Miller as "Doggie Millers." This, among his oratorical audiences,

evolved into the generic "doggie millers," who ran "doggy mills," and then in the
1930s the term "doggy mill" morphed into the currently more familiar
"puppy mill," although the term "doggie mill" was also still used for
many more years. If you will look back in old newspapers early 1900s you will see the term

doggie miller used in ads for dogs.

Answer 2

From Middle French poupée "toy", the original meaning being a toy dog, coming to mean any small dog, then young dogs.