Ameripicking (is that a word yet?)

[joyeuses]

A quick question - would any of you recognize the word "moggy" as slang to mean an alley cat? I've never heard of it until now, but I want to know if it's used in any regional dialects in the USA.

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Comments

Not an American, but...

[janice_lester]

I've been corrected for it in the past on the grounds that it wouldn't be used in either Jim's or McCoy's dialects. It's not a "Britishism" however (Americans seem from my POV to be far too free with that term) as it definitely has currency in New Zealand and presumably Aussie too. In NZ, mog/moggy/moggie would simply mean "cat", with a connotation of non-pedigree breeding akin to "bitser" or "cross" or, at the strongest, "mongrel" for a dog. There are children's books with a main character cat called Mog, though I don't know whether this is the source of the term or merely took something known and made it better known.

[anodyna]

I don't recognize it as American slang. I know I've run across it in reading, but it's been a while. I feel like--it's what British witches call their cats? (I didn't realize until I googled it that it's not exclusively witch-slang, hah.) Anyway speaking only for the New England/Upper Midwest regions, I don't think people here would recognize that.

[goodgollygopher]

Nooope.

[tacky_tramp]

My family's a mix of Northeastern, Midwestern, and Southern, and I now live in California -- never heard it.

[la_dissonance]

Nope, that one's new to me. (My regional dialect is from new england, if that helps any :/)