www.alphadictionary.com

In the news I read "Westminster Dog Show Adding Mongrels to the Mix" and thought what is the root. It means a dog of no decent able breed. It also has an insult meaning when referring to people heritage, but happily this insult is transforming nowadays into an asset.

It is interesting that this is an old English word, and it does have some Germanic heritage or is it Saxon?

I thing there is some more interesting root behind mongrel, mingle, and monger tho I haven't teased it out yet.

E

Mongrel and mingle are related, but monger doesn't fit in there. It's a different root entirely.

Something I didn't know until just now is that -el is a pejorative suffix, as in wastrel. Can anyone come up with others of the ilk?