puppy: [15] A puppy is etymologically a ‘toy’ dog. The word was borrowed from Old French popee ‘doll’, hence ‘toy’, which went back via Vulgar Latin *puppa (source of English puppet) to Latin pūpa ‘girl, doll’ (source of English pupa and pupil). The shift from ‘toy dog, lapdog’ to ‘young dog’ happened towards the end of the 16th century. (The Old and Middle English word for ‘puppy’, incidentally, was whelp.) => pupil
puppy (n.)
late 15c., "woman's small pet dog," of uncertain origin but likely from Middle French poupée "doll, toy" (see puppet). Meaning shifted from "toy dog" to "young dog" (1590s), replacing Middle English whelp. In early use in English puppet and puppy were not always distinct from each other. Also used about that time in sense of "vain young man." Puppy-dog first attested 1590s (in Shakespeare, puppi-dogges). Puppy love is from 1823. Puppy fat is from 1937.
实用例句
1. A puppy stepped in the fresh cement.
一只小狗踩在刚抹好的水泥面上。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Her face had already lost its puppy-fat.
她的脸已经不再肉嘟嘟的了。
来自柯林斯例句
3. One morning we came upon an abandoned undernourished puppy on the porch.
