DOGGEREL

PRONUNCIATION: (DO-guhr-uhl, DOG-uhr-)

MEANING: noun:
1. Comic verse that is irregular in rhythm and in rhyme especially for burlesque or comic effect.
2. Trivial or bad poetry.

NOTES: Here’s poet John Skelton (c. 1463-1529) defending his doggerels:
For though my rhyme be ragged,
Tattered and jagged,
Rudely rain-beaten,
Rusty and moth-eaten,
If ye take well therewith,
It hath in it some pith.

ETYMOLOGY: Dogs have a bad rap in the language (see dog’s chance, dogsbody) and the word doggerel reflects that view. The word is apparently a diminutive of the word dog. Earliest documented use: 1405.

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DAGGEREL - (diminutive) a small dagger; a snickersnee

DODGEREL - the elevated subway line that brings you to Ebbets Field

DOGGEEL - perennial foe of catfish