Talk:Moggy

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I tend to regard this as peculiarly Australian, though I know that it comes from a pet name for "Margaret". I'm familiar with the term because of the Eric Bogle song He's Nobody's Moggy Now. Eclecticology

Eric Bogle is of UK origin. He came to Australia as an adult (he even wrote a song about it :)) I figured that the term was English/Australian. Seriously, what do they call common-or-garden domestic cats in other countries? We should add it. KJ

The only term I've ever heard (other than roundabout descriptions like ordinary cat, regular cat, non-purebred cat, etc.) in Canada is moggy. - Montréalais

In America, it's just a plain ol' mixed-breed cat. Maybe I'll try to get people to start using the word "moggy" :) [[User:Lachatdelarue|Lachatdelarue (talk)]]

I'm from Australia, and 'Moggy' was definately slang for 'cat' whilst growing up... and the schoolyard explanation of the word is that it was from the schoolyard joke: 'How do you spell cat?' ... "M-o-g" (write it on paper each letter above the other. M = ears, o = head, g = body + tail). If cat is spelt m-o-g, it's only natural to pronounce it as 'mog' too :) Has anyone else heard this origin? If so, it should go into the article proper... --Nemo 01:19, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)

This is a back-formation. I've never come across this in Britain, although 'moggy' is the common colloquial term for a cat. John G Walker 14:35, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

I was surprised to read that the term was first recorded as late as 1911. Does anypone have a refernce for this? The fact that 'moggy' is in use for a cat in Britain but not the USA suggests that its origin dates from after 1776, but the fact that it's found in Australia and Canada would make me suspect that it dates from the nineteenth century not the early twentieth. However, I'm not a sociolinguist so I'm willing to be put right by anyone who has the facts. John G Walker 14:35, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Why the obsession with the health or sickliness of feral cats in the first paragraph of this entry? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.33.242.164 (talk) 02:57, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Why moggy?

Where did the word originated from? Stonerchic42069 (talk) 04:28, 1 August 2024 (UTC)

Wiktionary states 'Unknown, but probably originally Mog +‎ -y, a Scots or Northern English variant of maggie (“girl”), from Maggie, a diminutive of Margaret and Margery. First attested in reference to mongrel cats in Cockney.'. If you're asking for an etymology section, I suppose it could be added if a reliable source can be found to support anything. Traumnovelle (talk) 06:46, 1 August 2024 (UTC)

I don't understand why this was redirected?

I have literally never heard moggy used for a domestic shorthair cat. I am from Texas. You took a perfectly fine globally known, veterinary understood term for DSH and redirected into a very localized colloquialism Simmy27star (talk) 11:53, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

Moggy is a term used throughout the Commonwealth. Domestic shorthair is a fancier neologism that doesn't include medium or longhaired cats. There was no proper article to compare pedigreed cats to non-pedigreed cats before I created this. The other title I had before was 'random-bred cat' but this is far more obscure. I've made an argument below and I'd appreciate replying there to centralise the discussion. Traumnovelle (talk) 20:16, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

Move To Domestic Shorthair

Domestic shorthair is the correct term for this variety of cat. "Moggy" is a bizarre and unknown colloquialism.—chbarts (talk) 19:12, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

Domestic shorthair is a recently coined term by cat fanciers that only applies to short-haired cats, and not medium or long-haired cats. Moggy is a well known term in the Commonwealth and I'm not aware of any suitable title that is also used in American English. I initially went with 'mixed-breed cat' for a title but decided against it due to the title being erroneous. Random-bred cat was another term I used but it is far more unrecognisable and natural than moggy. Moggy is simply the best title per the WP:CRITERIA. Domestic cat (landrace) is not something a person will naturally search for, has parentheses which is discouraged, and is not precise as there are landrace breeds (or at least claimed to be) such as the Thai cat and Turkish Van.

The term bach would probably surprise you, but it is the title of the article because there is no other term to naturally describe it. American English lacking a term to describe non-pedigreed cats cannot be helped. Traumnovelle (talk) 20:14, 3 September 2024 (UTC)