Surprising Doublets: Hound-Canine and Wolf-Lupine


“Hound” is distantly related to “canine”, and “wolf” is similarly related to “lupus”. This makes these words two pairs of doublets.

I enjoy the symmetry of this one, with the scientific species name of the grey wolf (which includes dogs), “Canis lupus”, being from the same origins as hound+wolf in English respectively.

Another word related to “canine” is “canary”: the yellow birds are named for the Canary Islands, which were “Canariae insulae” (dog islands) in Latin.

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