The story
- Mandarin · derived from獅子 /狮子“lion”
- English todayShih Tzu
From the Wade–Giles romanisation shih¹-tzŭ⁵ of Mandarin 獅子 /狮子 (shīzi, “lion”), a contraction of 獅子狗 /狮子狗 (shīzigǒu, literally “lion dog”), from the breed's resemblance to Chinese guardian lion statues. The original Mandarin word now refers only to the Pekingese, while this breed now properly goes by the name 西施犬 (xīshīquǎn, literally “Xi Shi dog”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.