Early Usage
Historically, the words cur and feist were used in England to refer to small hunting dogs, where "feists" were the smaller dogs and "curs" were 30 lbs or larger. The Elizabethans may have used the word "cur" to denote "terrier".
The word cur appears to be colloquial in nature. In 1790, Thomas Bewick wrote:
The Cur Dog is a trusty and useful servant to the farmer and grazier; and, although it is not taken notice of by naturalists as a distinct race, yet it is now so generally used, especially in the North of England, and such great attention is paid in breeding it, that we cannot help considering it as a permanent kind. They are chiefly employed in driving cattle; in which way they are extremely useful. They are larger, stronger, and fiercer than the Shepherd's Dog; and their hair is smoother and shorter. They are mostly black and white colour. Their ears are half-pricked; and many of them are whelped with short tails, which seem as if they had been cut: These are called Self-tailed Dogs. They bite very keenly; and as they always make their attack at the heels, the cattle have no defence against them: In this way they are more than a match for a Bull, which they quickly compel to run. Their sagacity is uncommonly great. They know their master's fields, and are singularly attentive to the cattle that are in them: A good Dog watches, goes his rounds; and, if any strange cattle should happen to appear amongst the herd, although unbidden, he quickly flies at them, and with keen bites obliges them to depart.
Cur also appeared in the Scottish periodical, Blackwood's Magazine in 1819. The article, Species and Historic lineage of Canine derivations, penned by Sir P. Sean Lacey of London (1776–1842), cites "separating the miscreants and cur breeds from those of honourable standing".
An early Webster's Dictionary definition cites a "worthless dog, or a dog descended from a wolf".
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