Merriam-Webster got flooded with puppy pics after tweeting about the word “doggo”

It’s hard work being an online dictionary — not only are you the top reference when new words come out, but you’ve got to keep your social media accounts fresh and informative. Merriam-Webster tweeted about “doggo,” and the response was something they should have expected — a deluge of photos of people’s beloved dogs.

Let’s talk a little about doggos, shall we? While we all know that it relates to our pups, we may not realize that it has a different meaning in the dictionary. Merriam-Webster lists the word as meaning “in hiding —used chiefly in the phrase to lie doggo,” and tracks it back to 1886. While it’s tough to track when it started being used primarily as cute slang, Know Your Meme believes it may have happened back in 2014, with a Facebook group called “Ding de la Doggo Facebook.” Reddit had some influence as well, because —well, Reddit.

Since more and more people are starting to use it, Merriam-Webster listed “doggo” as being a word that they’re currently watching. “Perhaps the phrase was meant to evoke the light sleep of dogs,” they wrote on their blog. “What we do know is that the word itself does go back to dog, and is probably the word dog with the noun suffix -o, meaning ‘one that is, has the qualities of, or is associated with.’”

Doggos. https://t.co/G2n32twS4X

— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) December 27, 2017

Pretty soon, they had a bunch of doggos in their thread. And since Merriam-Webster is the best, they adorably responded to a good amount of them. While it’s tough to choose, here are a few of our favorites.

My doggo is Christmas af pic.twitter.com/VxHLgsQqWB

— Adam Norbjerg (@spadam) December 27, 2017

https://twitter.com/udfredirect/status/946082620391284736

false

This is a doggo named Sherlock and he’s suspicious of your intentions. pic.twitter.com/OybIQZWMeE

— Jeremy Conrady (@J_Conrady) December 27, 2017

false

Sidney, the BEST girl pic.twitter.com/wNyTGGv35N

— The other Theodosius II (@OtherTheodosius) December 27, 2017

false

(If only we could post all of these! Alas, there are simply too many.)

We know that Merriam-Webster has their word of the year, but perhaps they might want to start a new tradition and annually welcome some good doggos before New Year’s Eve. Because there’s no better way to close out the year.