dog Latin

American  

noun

1. mongrel or spurious Latin.

2. a jargon imitating Latin.

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dog Latin British  

noun

1. spurious or incorrect Latin

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Etymology

Origin of dog Latin

First recorded in 1760–70

Example Sentences

The dog Latin of the Middle Ages had a reason for its creation of the verb denasare.

From The Man Who Laughs by Hugo, Victor

It is not dog Latin, but Latin ingeniously italianized, or rather Italian, even Mantuan, latinized.

From Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 1 by Motteux, Peter Anthony

No hotch-potch here of dog Latin and Levantine Greek, but plain straight English, cool and fresh in the mouth.

From England by Fox, Frank, Sir

Who ever bought, who ever read, those cloudy tomes in dog Latin?

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 87, January, 1865 by Various

Vegetable diet and dog Latin are strong provocatives of thirst, and the number of times that I was compelled to say 'ad salutem' in the course of the evening was astonishing.

From Herzegovina Or, Omer Pacha and the Christian Rebels by Arbuthnot, George