doge
or doge meme [dohzh] or [dohj] or [doj] or [dohg] or [daw-gee, dog-ee]
What does doge mean?
Doge refers to an internet meme that pairs pictures of Shiba Inu dogs, particularly one named Kabosu, with captions depicting the dog’s internal monologue.
Where does doge come from?
The intentional misspelling of dog as doge for comedic value goes back to 2005, when it was used in an episode of the web series Homestar Runner.
In 2010, Atsuko Sato, a Japanese kindergarten teacher, had posted photos on her blog of her pet dog Kabosu, a Shiba Inu. One of these photos depicted Kabosu making a curious sidelong glance variously viewed as worried, judgmental, or confused. This specific photo is usually referenced as the doge photo, but it would take a couple more years for it to reach serious, viral meme status.
Enter Reddit user papajohn56 in October 2010 posting a picture of a corgi in a bathtub with the caption “LMBO LOOK @ THIS FUKKEN DOGE.” It’s unclear if the doge used in his post was another intentional misspelling or a typo, but the post helped establish doge as a term for cute or silly dog imagery.
And so it was this combination of Kabosu’s distinctive look and some cute corgi dubbed as doge that the meme exploded in popularity around 2013. The meme is characterized by photoshopped images, usually with Comic Sans captions depicting the dog’s thoughts. It even spread to the point of spawning merchandise, like t-shirts and coffee mugs. Doge became a YouTube Easter egg, a cameo in a Weird Al Yankovic video, and appeared on the car of NASCAR driver Josh Wise. The meme even spawned its own form of digital currency, Dogecoin.
Sadly, Kabosu passed away on May 24, 2024. Sato said that she “crossed the rainbow bridge” peacefully at home.
Examples of doge
“we're going with doge-style 'much audience. such resilience. wow.'”
“my timeline is full of doge, the dream!”
“This is Doge. He’s one of the internet’s hottest memes. You could say it’s a hot doge.”
Who uses doge?
Fans of doge disagree, sometimes passionately, about how to pronounce doge. Common pronunciations are “dohzh,” “dawj,” “dohj” and “dogue” (like vogue), but others like “doggy” also exist.
The doge meme displays a photo of a Shiba Inu—usually the sidelong glance photo of Kabosu, but not always—surrounded by a series of short captions in colorful, lowercase Comic Sans font, meant to express the dog’s inner monologue. These captions, which have come to be called doge-speak, tend to be short, choppy, and with deliberately poor grammar. They are often exclamations of surprise or enjoyment, meant to interpret the frenzied and excited manner of many real dogs. Frequently misused in the captions are adjectives or adverbs like “such,” “many,” “so,” “much,” and “very” in expressions like “many happy” or “very guitar.”
The doge meme is also used for humor and social commentary. In one meme, a doge is photoshopped to look like a delicious bagel, captioned in doge-speak: “wow such taste / such chocolate / so yum / such sweet / wow / don’t eat me / many tastes / wow many cinnamons / am really doge / only pretend to be bagel.” Another meme features a photoshopped picture of Russian President Vladimir Putin hugging doge, with the captions: “much strong / such leader / wow / very politics / so snowden.”
The popularity of the doge meme has led to popular usage of the term doge to refer to dogs in general, particularly when they do things considered weird or funny.
The doge meme is not to be confused with the historical Doge, the title of the chief magistrate of Venice from the 600–1700s and the ruler of Genoa from the 1300-1700s.
NOTE
This is not meant to be a formal definition of doge like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of doge that will help our users expand their word mastery.
