Etymology

borzoi

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Today it means: A dog of a particular breed, similar in shape to a greyhound but with longer silkier hair. Full definition →

Russian борзо́й ← Proto-Indo-European *mréǵʰus
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*mréǵʰus
  2. Russian · borrowed fromборзо́й
  3. English todayborzoi

Borrowed from Russian борзо́й (borzój), from бо́рзый (bórzyj, “swift”), from Proto-Indo-European *mréǵʰus (whence English brief, brace and merry). Popularised since 1936 when the American Kennel Club renamed the dog breed from "Russian Wolfhound" to "Borzoi" as the standard name for the dog, to comply with international kennel clubs' standards and to reflect the dog's original Russian name.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*mréǵʰus all →

briefbramerrybrumebrumous

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.