Meanings
dog Latin1
alternative Dog Latin
- A phrase or jargon that imitates Latin, often by translating English words (or those of other languages) into Latin by conjugating or declining them.
1 more example
Now that walking plants were established facts, the press lost its former tepidity and bathed them in publicity. So a name had to be found for them. Already there were botanists wallowing, after their custom, in polysyllabic dog-Latin and Greek to produce variants on ambulans and pseudopodia, but what the newspapers and the public wanted was something easy on the tongue and not too heavy on the headlines for general use.
1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 41Synonyms: Canis Latinicus, cod Latin, hog Latin, macaronic Latin
Dog Latin2
- Alternative letter-case form of dog Latin.
Synonyms & antonyms
proper nounA phrase or jargon that imitates Latin, often by translating English words (or those of other languages) into Latin by conjugating or declining them.
Origin
The term Dog Latin dates back to at least the 17th century and is thought to derive from the notion of doggerel, a word meaning rough, irregular, or trivial verse. Chambers (1908) suggests that the word reflects the idea of a clumsy, bastardized form of Latin, as if produced by dogs rather than by scholars. The adjective dog in this sense was historically used to indicate something inferior or absurd, paralleling its use in expressions like dog's breakfast or doggerel. The term thus conveys the idea of a humorous or intentionally incorrect imitation of classical Latin.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Afrikaans kombuislatyn
- kombuislatynbad, erroneous Latin
Dutch potjeslatijn
- potjeslatijnbad, erroneous Latin
Esperanto latinaĉo
- latinaĉobad, erroneous Latin
French latin macaronique, latin de cuisine
- latin macaroniquebad, erroneous Latin
- latin de cuisinebad, erroneous Latin
German Küchenlatein
- Küchenlateinbad, erroneous Latin
Irish Laidin bhacach
- Laidin bhacachbad, erroneous Latin
Italian latino maccheronico
- latino maccheronicobad, erroneous Latin
Polish łacina kuchenna
- łacina kuchennabad, erroneous Latin
Spanish latín macarrónico, latinajo
- latín macarrónicobad, erroneous Latin
- latinajobad, erroneous Latin
Swedish kökslatin
- kökslatinbad, erroneous Latin
Cite this entry
dog Latin. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dog%20Latin
“dog Latin.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dog%20Latin. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dog Latin,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dog%20Latin.
Source: dog Latin on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.