Irish wolfhound
noun · first attested 19th century
The breed outlived its job: the last wolf in Ireland was killed around 1786.
A very large sighthound, the tallest dog breed on average, bred in Ireland to hunt wolves.
Record
- Relationship
- From the people of the place
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Attested
- 19th 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
Ireland
- In English
Irish wolfhound
With no wolves left and rural Ireland emptied by the Great Famine, the old Irish wolfdog had all but vanished by the middle of the nineteenth century. From 1863 Captain George Augustus Graham collected the surviving dogs and crossed in Scottish deerhound, Great Dane, and borzoi blood to rebuild the type, founding the Irish Wolfhound Club in 1885. The modern dog is a Victorian reconstruction of a much older animal.