The Names of All Manner of Hounds: Inventory in a Fifteenth-Century Manuscript | Hacker News Reader

The Names of All Manner of Hounds: Inventory in a Fifteenth-Century Manuscript

imgur.io

72 pointsbenbreen47 comments

"Abstract: The Names of All Manner of Hounds is a unique list of 1065 names for hunting dogs (running hounds, terriers and greyhounds) found in a fifteenth-century manuscript that has recently been sold into a closed private collection. The present article offers a critical edition of this unusual text, which has never been published before, preceded by an introduction that contextualizes its contents in terms of the hunting culture and the milieu to which they belong. ..."

https://sci-hub.ru/10.1484/j.viator.1.103488

Xenophon, the author of Anabasis, also wrote a treatise on hunting, which includes suggestions for naming hounds:

> Give the hounds short names, so as to be able to call to them easily. The following are the right sort: Psyche, Thymus, Porpax, Styrax, Lonchê, Lochus, Phrura, Phylax, Taxis, Xiphon, Phonax, Phlegon, Alcê, Teuchon, Hyleus, Medas, Porthon, Sperchon, Orgê, Bremon, Hybris, Thallon, Rhomê, Antheus, Hebe, Getheus, Chara, Leusson, Augo, Polys, Bia, Stichon, Spudê, Bryas, Oenas, Sterrus, Craugê, Caenon, Tyrbas, Sthenon, Aether, Actis, Aechmê, Noes, Gnomê, Stibon, Hormê.

Translations:

> Psyche, Pluck, Buckler, Spigot, Lance, Lurcher, Watch, Keeper, Brigade, Fencer, Butcher, Blazer, Prowess, Craftsman, Forester, Counsellor, Spoiler, Hurry, Fury, Growler, Riot, Bloomer, Rome, Blossom, Hebe, Hilary, Jollity, Gazer, Eyebright, Much, Force, Trooper, Bustle, Bubbler, Rockdove, Stubborn, Yelp, Killer, Pele-mele, Strongboy, Sky, Sunbeam, Bodkin, Wistful, Gnome, Tracks, Dash

Ancient Greek text: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynegeticus#Chapter_7

This poem by Jon Anderson came to mind...

"Ye Brothers Dogg"

  Ye dog O'Toole, who hath
  not work at love, nor art,
  nor goeth school, sayeth
  with fart at golden rule.

  Be it bitch or biscuit
  or platter stew,
  ye palate alone shall guide you.

  Ye dog Hodain forgoeth bone,
  nor doth disdain to moan.
  For wind and rain, ye snow
  and ye seasons, sun, and world roll on.
  But ye days a dog are not long.

  Brothers two, ye slim Hodain
  and fat O'Toole, beneath fence,
  diggeth hole.

  Into ye world ye brothers dance.
  Nor would return, ye fat
  O'Toole and slim Hodain.
  Sooner is report, brothers two
  doth run amok in neighborhood.

  Cautions O'Toole,
  'Hodain, ye may bark,
  may scowl, and be rude.
  But do not bite ye hand
  what giveth dog food.'

  Though all complain of brothers
  two, no wind nor rain doth drive them home.
  Then sayeth Hodain to brother,
  'O'Toole, though we have been
  friends through thick and thin,
  dog needeth some love from man.'

  So end ye song of brothers two.
  Away they had flown,
  and back they flew.
  Reclineth ye yard
  through seasons and sun,
  through wind and
  rain, ye snow, ye fog.
  O'Toole, Hodain,
  ye brothers dog.

Hodain (or Husdant ) was the name of Tristan's hound from the 12th century legend of Tristan and Isolde. I'm surprised neither is in the list - or maybe it is and I didn't see it.

For what it's worth most of these "ye"s are probably meant to be "þe" which is just "the" and is pronounced with a "th" sound.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye_olde

It's a modern author so I'm showing it as written.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Anderson_(poet)

We changed the url from https://imgur.io/gallery/3JVAIHS to a copy of the paper it's taken from. Thanks to the user who emailed!

Edit: changed back to that from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257920157_The_Names... because people couldn't read the paper at the latter link.

The new source doesn't show the list of names... maybe it's buried in the PDF if one is willing to download a whole PDF just to glance at the list.

It also seems that accessing said PDF is buried behind an authwall.

The list is immediately accessible in the Imgur gallery.

That feels like a step backwards to me.

Linking researchgate is always a step back. If we want the original source link the location of the doi. If not then an imgur album is preferable to that parasitic company trying to insert itself in scholarly communication.

Ok, I can't seem to access the entire paper (anymore? not sure) so have switched back to the originally submitted URL. Other users have posted usable workarounds elsewhere in the comments.

Is this names like spot, rover, etc. or names like beagle, bloodhound, etc. ?

I assume the later but that still seems like a lot of dog types for the 15th century. I suppose dogs were important and it's an Eskimo/snow thing.

It looks like it's names for individual dogs, broken down by letter then by the type of dog. Houndis and braches, male and female hounds respectively. Tereris I'm guessing is terrier.

Greyhoundis and greybicches. I don't know why that's so hilarious to me. I think it's just the archaic spelling forced me sound it out and it took a second to process.

I was really hoping Phideaux was in there.

I love how they opened things in Middle English. Makes me think of the Canterbury Tales. PEM format keys should adopt the convention:

    ----- HERE BYGYNNETH YE RSA PRIVATE KEYE. -----
    .
    .
    .
    ----- HERE ENDETH YE RSA PRIVATE KEYE. -----

Please write more IETF RFCs. The world needs more of this.

Screenshots? There's a PDF with proper text published as part of doi:10.1484/j.viator.1.103488. available at your favorite hub for science.

Dog name trivia:

I live in a mixed Asian neighborhood. I've met four dogs owned by Indians, all named "Simba."

At one time in the dog park, there were three dogs named "Cooper."

But the absolute dumbest name you can give your dog is "Bailey." If you named your dog Bailey you are dead to me :)

I've started grouping dog names according to a common pattern. For example: Blonde dogs named after thunder gods. My apartment complex has three: a Jupiter, a Zeus, and a Thor. Or, goldendoodles whose names can be followed with "Jack cheese". My complex has two: Colby and Pepper, and they seem to have identical goldendoodle personalities as well.

We call ours "Monty" for short

Funny about gods. My neighbors have a non-blonde dog named Bragi.

https://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-aesir-god...

Not quite a thunder god.

it’s interesting that Thor is now widely seen as blonde. the original legend - as I know it - is of a red-haired individual

That's how he appears in God of War: Ragnarok, and with a considerable mead-belly as well.

Last time I went to the vet it was 'Murphy'. The assistant called for 'Murphy' and 3 of the 4 or 5 owners there got up.

Luna. Even worse than Bailey.

On the National Dog Show today they said Luna was the most popular name for a female dog in the U.S. Max was the most popular name.

If I ever need names for pet server instances again...

Based on your user name, shouldn’t you have dogs?

Waiting on a response…

‘Greybicch’ would be a good name for a server. But there are heaps of excellent names in there for all sorts of use cases.

My favorite is definitely "Beste-of-all"

“Chopper” seems modern and quite well suited too … particularly for dogs with big teeth …

Or ones who move their tail a lot.

He was surely the leader of a fine category:

  "Pretiboy"
  "Swepestake"
  "Stanchebost"

But, there was also another kind:

  "Plodder"
  "Vagrawnte"
  "Helpeles"

All of these others mean something to me, but what does "Stanchebost" mean?

Did people actually named their dogs like that or is that wild imagination of some writer? A lot of them seem... impractical

I wonder if people didn't train their dogs "by name" at that time. I imagine that many of these dogs were working dogs in some sense, and maybe they were more like horses in that their names were useful labels but not actually used to address the animal.

It would be interesting to know the answer to this.

I find it hard to believe that a favourite dog or horse, working not, wouldn’t get talked to and named by it’s owner. At a minimum, it’s useful, as you can get a particular dog to do something when it’s addressed individually.

>At a minimum, it’s useful, as you can get a particular dog to do something when it’s addressed individually.

That can work, particularly with smarter breeds that can understand context, but it actually isn't anywhere close to best practice.

MUCH better is to train separate commands for the same action for each dog.

I swear I call my name by everything other than her official name.

Everyone in my family has a different name for the dog. Referring to the dog as "The Dog" is forbidden.

If we assume the names were pronounced with Middle English, they would sound quite a bit different compared to Modern English. You can hear a few words here.

https://forvo.com/languages-pronunciations/enm/

I was looking for a Middle English text to speech tool to try out some of the names, but no luck finding one.

Was thinking the same thing.

In general, though, I think the sounds should be pretty accurate if you give the vowels their sounds before the Great Vowel Shift, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift.

making a middle englosh text-to-speech tool seems like a fools errand for a number of reasons

I know that but still I'd imagine calling the dog Bultyngebrake or Cowntirfette ("caught-in-fire") would be pretty unwieldy

It is mildly warming to see that people have been using funny names for their pets for a great long while.

I was a little disappointed that Beowulf wasn't on there.

Are there any great books on the history of dogs?

They had one named "Monke"... nice

I don't see Tartuffe the spry wonder dog.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com