Grammar Girl here, I'm Mignon Faugherty, your friendly guide to the English language.

Today we're going to talk about schnauzers, skelewags, and the phrase used to.

But first, I have a correction from the recent show about how dog breeds got their names.

I said schnauzers are a type of terrier, and their name means growler in German.

But a listener named Priscilla, who breeds schnauzers, wrote in to say that schnauzer actually means mustache,

which makes sense if you've ever looked at a schnauzer with their cute

little faces. And since Priscilla is essentially a schnauzer expert, I figured she probably

knew what she was talking about. But at first, I was confused because I double-checked my

source in the online etymology dictionary, which I've always found to be reliable, does say that

schnauzer first showed up in English in 1923, and that the word comes from German schnauzer,

which literally means growler, coming from schnauzen, which means to snarl or growl,

which comes from schnauz, meaning snout or muzzle.

Plus, the American Kennel Club website also says the breed name comes from schnauz, meaning

snout or muzzle, going back to that same origin, but leaving out the seemingly middle step

related to snarling or growling. But then I checked Google Translate, and it told me that Schnauzer

in German does indeed mean mustache. So what is going on? Well, the Oxford English Dictionary

finally pieced it together for me. It also says the dog name comes from German schnauzer. That was a name for the dog going back to at least 1767, and that it did mean snout. But then it also has a note that says, quote, with the use to denote a breed of dog, perhaps compare also to German schnauzer mustache, unquote. So it seems that a lot of people

think schnauzer comes from a German word for snout or muzzle, and that maybe there's an

intermediate growling meaning, but that the word can also mean mustache in German. At this point,

I'm not sure anyone really knows the ultimate origin

of the name, but it does all go back to their distinctive snout area in some way.

And finally, one more fix while we're here. Priscilla says that only miniature schnauzers are in

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