perp

n. a pup or puppy; a dog. Also purp. Subjects: English, Animals, Insects, & Birds

Editorial Note: In the 1958 citation, “Perp” is the name of a dog. In the 1959 source, a dog is pictured wearing a cowboy hat. Etymological Note: Probably due to r-epenthesis (also known as “the intrusive r”). Epenthesis is the insertion of an extra sound in a word, in this case an “r” in the word “pup.” Well-known examples of this are pronunciations of wash that sound like warsh and of drawing that sound like drawring. Thanks to Sarah Hilliard for her help with this explanation. See the comments for a more detailed explanation by Ben Zimmer.

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Citations: 1865 Coshocton Democrat (Ohio) (May 24) “Training Dogs” p. 4: Gov. Andrews related a Texan practice in training dogs with sheep. “A purp is taken from its mother before its eyes are opened and put with an ewe to suckle. After a few times the ewe becomes reconciled to the pup which follows her like a lamb.” 1867 Appleton Creschent (Wisc.) (Sept. 14) @ Post-Crescent (Sept. 29, 1967) “On Hand Organs, Schools, Horses” p. A4: An old codger was here and played “Old Dog Tray,” when 11 or more perps were noticed sitting in front of the machine on their haunches, brushing the tears from their eyes with their fore paws. 1870 Sim Pelton Indiana Democrat (Indiana, Pa.) (June 2) “The Fate of A Fighting Dog” p. 1: A man he owned a terrier dorg—/A bob-tailed onery cuss./And that there purp got that there man/In many an ugly muss. 1878 F.O. Van Galder Southern Immigrant (Cullman, Ala.) (Oct. 3) “Only An Adventure” p. 1: I…drew up near a large man in a red shirt, who was holding an ugly looking, short ear bull pup by the collar.…Blood was on the ground, and both dogs were bleeding when I came up. “I’ll bet yer ten ounces ter two thet this perp is the boss,” said the young fellow. 1902 James Ball Naylor Nebraska State Journal (Feb. 16) “The Sign of the Prophet” p. 16: “Wher’s y’r master, purp?”…The hount lifted his nose and howled dolefully. 1910 Oxnard Courier (California) (Sept. 2) “Who Wants To Be Dog Catcher For City” p. 3: The owners of good dogs pay and the question now remains how to secure the revenue from the perps that are always under foot, always at the heels of horses, always digging up plants in the park and forever howling and scrapping at night. 1915 Lincoln Daily News (Neb.) (Mar. 29) “Clunette Clippings” p. 3A: He ordered a Boston bull terrier and when the dog come accompanied by it’s [sic] pedygree it was found the pesky perp was born in some town in Wisconsin. Whaddyamean Boston bull? 1955 Fred Bowles Gazette and Bulletin (Williamsport, Pa.) (Mar. 22) “There Are Times When a Man Is a Dog’s Worst Friend” p. 8: My purp came to the truck, sniffin’ the air and without a tail-wag or a wistful look at me. [1958 Syracuse Herald-Journal (N.Y.) (May 30) “Mark Trail” (in comic) p. 33: Frightened by the noise of the thunder, Perp tries to reach Andy.] 1959 Franklin Johnson @ Chicago Eagle-Gazette (Lancaster, Ohio) (Mar. 10) “‘Putting On The Dog’ No Longer Exclusively For Us Human Beings” p. 11: This “Wyatt Perp” getup has him barking with a drawl.

Posted 8 Nov 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

Just to be clear, the “intrusive r” of drawring is a slightly different phenomenon from the epenthetic r of warsh and perp. “Intrusive r” occurs in non-rhotic speech when a non-high vowel and a following vowel straddle a morpheme boundary. The warsh phenomenon is (AIUI) thought to originate with the loss of non-rhotic prestige, as when Southern r-lessness lost prestige in the South Midland dialect region. As the rhotic pattern became more prestigious, war changed from [wɔ:] to [wɔr], and some speakers then hypercorrected other forms like wash. One can imagine a similar hypercorrection extending from purr to pup. But I think this implies that pup must have been pronounced with a central vowel ([pə:p] or [pɜ:p]), since we wouldn’t expect an epenthetic r inserted after a back vowel in [pʌ:p]. (Somewhat similar is the case of lurve, a non-rhotic pronunciation spelling of [lə:v], a jocular pronunciation of love.)

by Ben Zimmer 09 Nov 05, 0354 GMT

Excellent information, Ben. Thanks. One paper I found that was helpful was Bryan Gick’s “A gesture-based account of intrusive consonants in English,” Phonology 16, pp. 29-54, 1999, Cambridge University Press.

by Grant Barrett 09 Nov 05, 0404 GMT

As I read the examples, I realize that in each given case they are referring to a dog or pup, but they could just as easily refer to the traditional meaning of “perp”— as in perpetrator of a crime. A criminal perpetrator or “perp”. I think its a huge stretch to think these examples define the word to mean a dog or puppy. Am I the only one who sees this?

by squirrel 10 Nov 05, 0509 GMT

Perp meaning ‘perpetrator’ only dates to about 1981, so this sense couldn’t account for the earlier citations.

by Ben Zimmer 10 Nov 05, 0543 GMT

I do have a cite of perp=perpetrator from 1973 (found it yesterday), but Ben’s right, I think. Although the 1878 and 1910 cites do discuss dogs getting into mischief, there are no cops in involved—which is important since “perp” until the rise of hip-hop was strictly copspeak (or crime beat reporter-speak). Also, none of other sources discuss dogs making trouble. Finally, the affected country or hick speech in the 1878 and 1915 cites seems hardly the place for the word “perpetrator” much less an in-the-know “perp.”

by Grant Barrett 10 Nov 05, 0111 GMT

The Dictionary of American Regional English concurs, by the way, with the definition given here, in its entry for “purp.” It marks it as a pronunciation-spelling for “pup.”

by Grant Barrett 10 Nov 05, 0321 GMT