ProbableNamed from the place
Icelandic Sheepdog
noun · first attested 20th century
The breed nearly died out at home and was rescued partly by an Englishman.
A small spitz herding dog with a curled tail, worked on sheep and horses in Iceland.
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- ProbableThe conventional story is likely, with caveats.
- Attested
- 20th century
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Iceland
- In English
Icelandic Sheepdog
Norse settlers brought the dogs' ancestors in the ninth century and the type appears in later Icelandic writing, but disease and culls had almost finished it by the early 1900s. Mark Watson, an Englishman who imported and bred the dogs from the 1950s, is generally credited with starting the recovery.
Iceland
All 2 entries