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dog O.E. docga, a late, rare word used of a powerful breed of canine. It forced out O.E. hund (the general Germanic and IE word; see canine) by 16c. and subsequently was picked up in many continental languages (cf. Fr. dogue, Dan. dogge), but the origin remains one of the great mysteries of English etymology.
In 14th-century England, hound (from Old English: hund) was the general word for all domestic canines, and dog referred to a subtype of hound, a group including the mastiff. It is believed this dog type was so common, it eventually became the prototype of the category hound. By the 16th century, dog had become the general word, and hound had begun to refer only to types used for hunting. The word hound is ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *kwon-, dog.