A.Word.A.Day --pug

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pug

PRONUNCIATION:

(puhg)

MEANING:

verb tr.:	1. To knead clay with water.
	2. To fill with clay or mortar.
	3. To make soundproof by packing with clay, sawdust, or mortar.
	4. To track by following footprints.
noun:	5. A footprint, especially of a wild animal; a pugmark.
	6. A boxer.
	7. A dog of a breed having a snub nose, short hair, wrinkled face, and curled tail.

ETYMOLOGY:

For 1-3: Origin unknown. Earliest documented use: early 1800s.
For 4-5: From Hindi pag (foot, step), from Sanskrit pad (foot). Earliest documented use: 1851.
For 6: Short for pugilist (boxer), from Latin pugnus (fist). Earliest documented use: 1858.
For 7: Of unknown origin. Earliest documented use: 1702.

USAGE:

"For wheel-throwing, once the clay is pugged and wedged, it can be centred on the wheel."
Edwin Wong; Going Potty Over Handmade Dinnerware; New Straits Times (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia); Sep 25, 2010.

"There is the oddly delicate track of a leopard and the just-plain-scary pugs of a male lion."
Mike Leggett; Tales of Life in the Wild; Austin American-Statesman (Texas); Aug 12, 2010.

"Sporting comebacks used to be associated with desperate pugs risking their final brain cells for a cheque desperately needed to pay off a bookie or a bar tab."
Richard Hinds; Thorpe Brave to Meddle With Golden Legacy; The Age (Melbourne, Australia); Feb 5, 2011.

See more usage examples of pug in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Talent develops in tranquillity, character in the full current of human life. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher (1749-1832)

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