Are You A Dogophile Or A Caninophile?

In his 2003 Time magazine essay, "Of Dogs and Men," later reprinted in Things That Matter (Crown Forum, 2013), his essay collection, the late syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer used the word "dogophilia" to describe the close relationship that humans have to their dogs.

A better, more elegant word would have been "caninophilia," the love of dogs. One website calls the word "a bastard mix of Latin and Greek," but it sounds much better than "dogophilia," a word that sounds ugly to my ears and robs such a passion for dogs of its beauty, mutuality, and elevated status. It would be like calling a person who has a deep passion for books a bookaholic or a bookophile instead of a bibliophile or, to use the name of this blog, a book maven.These latter terms are more elegant, celebratory, and respectful.

Some people might say that I'm nitpicking but to me words matter. How they are used conveys one's attitude and view of the world. To me, "dogophilia" trivializes a very important, deeply felt relationship.

As for me, although I've had many dogs in my life, I'm partial to cats. You can call me a felinophile or a cat lover, not a catophile.


Note: Merry Christmas, everyone!

History And Ideas

"History is shaped by its battle of ideas, and I wanted to be in the arena, not because I want to fight, but because some things need to be said. And some things need to be defended."--Charles Krauthammer (1950-2018), conservative public intellectual/syndicated columnist, quoted in "Charles Krauthammer, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Columnist and Intellectual Provacateur, Dies at 68" by Adam Bernstein, The Washington Post, June 21, 2018, republished in the Los Angeles Times.