The Feel of a Word: mongrel

All Englishes have this word for an animal of mixed breeding, at the opposite end of the spectrum from the thoroughbred. It comes from an Old English word ymong meaning ‘a mixture’ with the suffix –rel operating as a diminutive, sometimes with derogatory flavour.

The Australian perception of the mongrel differs from the British one which is essentially linked to a view of class and status.  The thoroughbred, animal or person, is noble, intuitively inclined to a better way of living than the mongrel which is low-class, given to gross and immoral and cowardly actions.  Despicable in every way and therefore not prized and (if a dog) likely to be a stray.

In the Australian tradition there has been more acceptance  of mongrels just as there has been less demand for high status and good breeding in men. It is actions that count and mongrel dogs perform very well.

.. an old dog he had, called Crib, a cross-bred mongrel-looking brute, most like what they call a lurcher in England, father said.  Anyhow, he could do most anything but talk. He could bite to some purpose, drive sheep or cattle, catch a kangaroo, if it wasn’t a regular flyer, fight like a bulldog, and swim like a retriever, track anything, and fetch and carry, but bark he wouldn’t. He’d stand and look at dad as if he worshipped him , and he’d make some sign and off he’d go like a child that’s got a message.

Robbery Under Arms. Rolf Boldrewood 1882

Banjo Paterson wrote a poem called The Story of Mongrel Grey, a horse that rescued a child from a flood  and brought it home safe and sound.  The horse was well looked after for the rest of his life because the family was forever grateful.

Indeed people of high class and status are likely to be considered more generally as effete, inept, lacking stamina and spirit.  And so it is common enough to hear that we prefer someone with a bit of mongrel in him, especially in a football team or a political party.  Pauline Hanson expressed this sentiment in the Courier-Mail in 2017 when introducing a new One Nation candidate:

“He's very passionate and I think he's got a bit of mongrel in him like me and won't let it go,” Ms Hanson said.

"I've always said that about candidates, if you want to get into politics you've got to have a bit of mongrel in you.”

A mongrel dog may be ok but for a man to be called a mongrel is the strongest censure.  Mongrel used this way is a man’s word used about men.  For the rest of the world it is derogatory because it is still linked to the original class sense. For Australians it means lacking all morality and decency, and behaving in ways that a real man would not.  A man can be called a mongrel if he strikes a woman, if he steals another man’s wife, if he cheats others (particularly if he is a boss ripping off a worker).  All these are mongrel acts performed by a mongrel of a bloke.

He did hit the girl. … It was a hell of an ugly scene. The girl was quite hysterical.

Jock: Mongrel. What kind of a man hits a woman?

The Club David Williamson  1978

Mongrel used to mean ‘worthless’ can be applied to things as well but that falls into the category of general abuse and is relatively harmless.  Bits of machinery or appliances can be described in this way.

And life in general can be mongrel:

We have had four days like this.  It’s been one little bloody thing after another. Four long mongrel days.  Everything you touch turns out bad, or broken, or wrong.

A Bundle of Yarns: Some Days Are Rocks      Daryl Guppy   1986

But mongrel here is the equivalent of blasted or bloody. It expresses exasperation rather than disdain.

Of course the circumstances change the degree of force that mongrel has.

Football fans at Aussie Rules routinely and vigorously challenge the umpire’s decisions.

But as one, we unite and scream: You mongrel umpire!!!

SUN  G Johnstone  1988

And while we are in the world of Aussie Rules we should consider the mongrel kick or mongrel punt which is a badly executed kick which wobbles forward and is easy pickings for the other team.

There is one odd direction that mongrel has taken in Australian English where, particularly in the 1980s to 1990s, it became a colloquialism for an erection.  Mostly men had a half mongrel in the same way that they were half tanked or half sozzled.

Upon arrival that evening, I immediately developed half a mongrel at the site [sic] of Elina scantily clad in a short black skirt, boots and leather jacket.

Pantsmans Diaries   Anon  2002

The other word in Australian English for a dog of mixed breed is a bitser.  This is a good-humoured joke, again poking fun at notions of good breeding. When asked what breed your dog is, you respond firmly ‘a bitser’ as if that is a breed of equivalent status to any of the accepted noble breeds.  Bitser analysed more closely reveals that it is short for bits of this and bits of that.