sb. Also 8 coly, 8–9 colley, (9 coally, coley, cooly). [Origin uncertain: it has been conjectured to be the same word as coaly ‘the colour being originally black’; cf. COLLY a. Chaucer has Colle as proper name of a dog, of which collie might possibly be dimin.]
1. A Scotch shepherd’s dog; a breed of sheepdogs remarkable for sagacity.
[c. 1386. Chaucer, Nun’s Pr. T., 563. Ran Colle our dogge, and Talbot, and Gerlond.]
a. 1651. Calderwood, Hist. Kirk (1678), 691 (Jam.). The Bishop was nicknamed Collie, because he was so impudent and shameless, that when the Lords of the Session and Advocates went to dinner, he was not ashamed to follow them into their houses, unasked, and sat down at their table.
1721. Ramsay, Richy & Sandy, 19. A better lad ne’er lean’d out o’er a kent, Or hounded coly o’er the mossy bent.
1787. Grose, Prov. Gl., Coley, a cur dog. N.
1786. Burns, Twa Dogs, 23. The tither was a ploughman’s collie, His breast was white, his touzie back Weel clad wi’ coat o’ glossy black; His gawcie tail, wi’ upward curl, Hung owre his hurdies wi’ a swirl.
1806. Edin. Even. Courant, 20 Jan. (Jam.). A black and white rough coley, or shepherd’s dog.
1872. Sir G. W. Dasent, Three to One, II. 216. Reminded one rather of an affectionate coolie dog wagging his tail.
b. fig. ‘One who follows another constantly or implicitly’ (Jam.); cf. to dog, and Sc. follow-dog.
2. attrib. esp. in collie-dog.
c. 1774. C. Keith, Farmer’s Ha’, in Chambers, Pop. Sc. Poems (1841), 11/1. The colly dog lies i’ the nook.
1807. Bewick, Hist. Quadrupeds (ed. 5), 329. The Cur Dog Is a trusty and useful servant to the farmer and grazier…. In the north of England, this and the foregoing [The Shepherd’s Dog] are called Coally Dogs.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xliii. Turning sinners as a colley dog turns sheep.
1833. Fraser’s Mag., Oct., 398/2. His dog Totchy, an animal of the cooly breed,… possessed almost human intelligence.
1884. York Herald, 23 Aug., 4/2. Lost, a Black and Tan Collie Puppy.
1861. G. H. K., Vacat. Tour, 139. All books are full of the marvels of colly-dogism.
