1610: Navajo Horses and Dogs: Pets and Sh*t Pets | May 12, 2019

One of the Navajo words for horse used to mean dog; while in general a single word can be translated literally, the other meanings and connotations it carries will not be conveyed. In this case the word łį́į́ʼ (standard quotations omitted to not confuse the spelling) could be translated sometimes 'livestock', but is conveys positive emotions, such as 'pet' would too, so it would often be used for 'dog' as well. This changed when they were introduced to horses, at which point horses became favored, and łį́į́ʼ was used to describe them. After that, dogs were called łééchąąʼí meaning literally 'shit pet'.

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