doge

¹ American  

[dohj] / doʊdʒ /

noun

1. the chief magistrate in the former republics of Venice and Genoa.

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doge ² American  

[dohj, dohzh] / doʊdʒ, doʊʒ /

noun

1. an internet fad or meme typified by an image of a dog of the Shiba Inu breed accompanied by very short phrases that humorously represent the dog's imagined thoughts and use the wrong modifiers or shortened word forms, as "such dignified" or "amaze."

2. one such image posted on the internet.

   That's the cutest doge I've ever seen!

3. the innovative grammar or language of doge.

   If you don't speak doge, you might be a little confused.

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doge British  

/ dəʊdʒ /

noun

1. (formerly) the chief magistrate in the republics of Venice (until 1797) and Genoa (until 1805)

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Other Word Forms

• dogedom noun
• dogeship noun

Etymology

Origin of doge¹

1540–50; < Upper Italian ( Venetian ) < Latin ducem, accusative of dux leader; duce, duke, dux

Origin of doge¹

First recorded in 2005–10; intentional misspelling of dog

Example Sentences

Kabosu, the dog behind the "doge" meme, has died after 14 years of internet fame, her owner has said.

From BBC

On Monday, some users began seeing a doge in place of Twitter’s traditional bird logo.

From New York Times

Its first doges, or leaders, sailed to the spot where the lagoon meets the sea and tossed a gold ring off a ship to signify Venice’s marriage to the sea.

From New York Times

Nonetheless, some market players pointed to the relative cheapness of these tokens - doge is worth about eight cents - as a reason why speculators were willing to place bets on them.

From Reuters

The craze soon sparked a flurry of "doge" memes - a long-ago accidental misspelling of dog amused the internet and quickly became popular.

From BBC