This deep dive into internet dog language examines our collective love of “puppers”

The first time I heard the word “doggo,” I thought, “Aww, that’s cute.” Then the friend who introduced me to the word, also introduced me to Dogspotting. This popular Facebook group has over 500,000 members, and it’s also the breeding group for a whole new internet dog language.

This lingo — with words like “doggo,” “pupper,” “woofer,” the like — is the subject of an NPR deep dive. It’s absolutely fascinating, and you don’t have to be a doggo-lover to appreciate it.

Where exactly are the origins of these dog descriptors? Why do they seem absolutely perfect for literally every pup on the page? It’s not just the dogs themselves that get internet lingo descriptors. “Doing me a frighten” is a popular expression, as is “bork.” Though many of these words are adaptations of other internet language, the way that the dog-loving community uses them for their own purposes is pretty amazing.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/dogspotting/permalink/10155361745869467

Dogspotting gets a particular spotlight, because it is probably the largest group of its kind. But I know for a fact that other kinds of animals have their own internet lingos. (My favorite non-dog one is probably “berb,” for birds.)

Read up on the whole piece here.

Now, I’m going to definitely not spend an hour looking up very good dogs.