trundletail

English

Alternative forms

  • trendle-tail
  • trindle-tail

Etymology

trundle + tail

Noun

trundletail (plural trundletails)

  1. (obsolete) A dog with a rounded, curled-up tail.[1]
    • 15th century, Juliana Berners, Hawking, Hunting, Fouling and Fishing, London: Adam Islip, 1596, “The names of diuers Hounds,”
      [] Trindle tailes, and pricke eared Curres, and small Ladie Puppies, that beare away the fleas and diuers small faults.
    • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [] (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vi]:
      Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim,
      Hound or spaniel, brach or lym,
      Bobtail tyke or trundle-tail
      Tom will make them weep and wail;
      For, with throwing thus my head,
      Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled.
    • 1614 November 10 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Beniamin Iohnson [i.e., Ben Jonson], Bartholmew Fayre: A Comedie, [], London: [] I[ohn] B[eale] for Robert Allot, [], published 1631, →OCLC, Act V, scene ii, page 26:
      Doe you sneere, you dogs-head, you Trendle tayle!
    • a. 1639, John Webster, Appius and Virginia, published 1654, Act III, Scene 1:
      [] what did you take me to be? [] a Woodcock amongst birds, [] amongst Cu[r]s a trindle tale,

References

  1. Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, London: W. Strahan, 1755: “TRUNDLE-TAIL [] Round tail.”
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