Wednesday Wag: Will doggo be the word of 2018?

Merriam-Webster has announced that doggo is one of the words they’re watching. And we all do need some very good puppers in our lives about now.

2018 is already looking up. While 2017 was all about words like complicit, 2018 is the year of the doggo. And that’s something we can all get behind.

That’s right. Merriam-Webster may actually make doggo a word in the dictionary, solidifying its place as the one true dictionary.

Merriam-Webster announced that “Doggo” is one of the words they’re watching. And it has a long history.

We all know doggos as very, very good puppers. But according to the dictionary, it was mainly used in the phrase “lie doggo” until recently. The word actually started as late 19^th century slang. To “lie doggo” meant “to stay hidden or to keep secret: to fly under the radar.” The phrase was popularized, though, when Rudyard Kipling used it in his stories.

But that’s not what doggo really means. At least not anymore. As Merriam-Webster notes, the word started appearing by itself in the 20^th century and referred to the name of a dog or something dog-like.

At one point, though, it was even the name of a dog repellant. And Mary Tyler Moore’s sitcom We’ve Got Each Other was called “El Doggo,” which meant “pretty bad.” How anything referring to a doggo can be bad is beyond me.

But by the turn of the millennium, the phrase “lie doggo” had fallen out of fashion and the real, true meaning of doggo had finally taken hold.

Doggos are good puppers. Doggos provide comfort when the world is falling apart. Doggos are cute and derpy. Doggo pictures make the Internet a happy place. And hopefully the word will take its rightful place in the dictionary soon.

Next: Wednesday Wag: It's dog sweater weather season

So while the world may seem like a terrible place constantly on the brink of nuclear war, just remember that the doggos are here for you and everything will be OK.