dog Latin
Americannoun
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mongrel or spurious Latin.
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a jargon imitating Latin.
noun
Etymology
Origin of dog Latin
First recorded in 1760–70
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Excellent dog Latin," said Jacques; "and literally translated it signifies: 'Gold from the Governor, Tobacco from the South Side, Asinarian strategy Has brought into his chambers.'
From The Youth of Jefferson A Chronicle of College Scrapes at Williamsburg, in Virginia, A.D. 1764 by Anonymous
It's wonderful how well this jolly dog gets on, with his dogmas and dog Latin together.
From Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 04, April 23, 1870 by Various
His precise, curial style was easily victorious over the Jesuit's dog Latin, and his expressive German, with his pithy Lutheranisms, was more than a match for the general's Platt-Deutsch dialect.
From Pretty Michal by Mór Jókai
The dog Latin of the Middle Ages had a reason for its creation of the verb denasare.
From The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo
It is not dog Latin, but Latin ingeniously italianized, or rather Italian, even Mantuan, latinized.
From Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 1 by Peter Anthony Motteux
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
