doge

What does doge mean?

An intentional misspelling of dog, doge refers to an Internet meme involving a picture of a Shiba Inu dog captioned with humorously ungrammatical phrases.

The meme inspired a cryptocurrency, called Dogecoin and abbreviated DOGE. The cryptocurrency influenced the backronym Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, referring to a political body advising President Donald Trump on cutting waste and spending in the federal government.

Also Doge. Pronounced dōj or dōzh.

Examples of doge

A key catalyst for Dogecoin’s price could be Bitcoin’s rebound and a move above its all-time high. If Bitcoin achieves this, it is likely to trigger a strong bullish breakout for DOGE.
—Crispus Nyaga, crypto.news, 11 Dec. 2024

I’m excited to chair this new subcommittee designed to work hand in hand with President Trump, Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy and the entire DOGE team. We will identify and investigate the waste, corruption and absolutely useless parts of our federal government.
—Marjorie Taylor Greene, quoted in New York Times, 21 Nov. 2024

I’ve seen so many cute doge in Europe the past two weeks. … Every single one made me smile and talk in a silly voice to greet them. … I hope I keep smiling at every single dog I encounter.
—@lizwarrenaustin, Threads, 10 Jun. 2024

It just goes to show that even though Doge has been considered a stale, old meme for years, it still hasn’t faded from our collective memory.
—Jay Hathaway, The Daily Dot, 11 Apr. 2018

Where does doge come from?

The earliest known evidence for doge, as an intentional misspelling of dog, appears in a 2005 spin-off episode of Homestar Runner, an Internet comedy series.

Doge went viral as an Internet meme in 2013. The playful meme features the expressive face of a Shiba Inu captioned in colorful Comic Sans font with cute, short, and deliberately ungrammatical expressions (‘such happy,’ ‘very eat’) and catchphrases (‘wow,’ ‘amaze’). This lingo itself became referred to as doge. The meme is based on a picture of an actual dog, named Kabosu and owned by a Japanese teacher. This dog was affectionately referred to as doge on Tumblr in 2010. Use of the term here may reference the earlier Homestar Runner joke or be an independent development, drawing on the frequent practice (especially in reference to pet animals, like smol) of misspelling words in digital communication to convey humor, irony, or group identity.

The popularity of the meme inspired Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency created in December 2013. It was originally intended to parody the burgeoning trend of decentralized digital currency—and is widely credited as the first of the so-called meme coins, usually risky cryptocurrencies named after Internet memes. Dogecoin combines doge and coin, modeled after Bitcoin, a banner cryptocurrency. The currency abbreviation for Dogecoin is DOGE, and its visual identity uses the face of the dog from the meme. Elon Musk promoted Dogecoin in 2021, contributing to spikes in its value.

In 2024, Musk significantly donated to, and campaigned for, the reelection of Donald Trump. After winning, President-elect Trump appointed Musk, along with businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, to a proposed advisory body named the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE for short. That name is ostensibly a backronym for—or at least an allusion to—Dogecoin, which has become closely associated with Musk. Not an official department of the federal government, the purpose of the controversial task force is to cut federal waste and spending.

How is doge used?

Doge is still used to refer to subsequent variations on the original meme. It is also an Internet slang term for any adorable dog.

In financial contexts, the cryptocurrency is also widely referred to as doge, although especially in the form of a capitalized abbreviation, DOGE.

Since the reelection of Donald Trump to the presidency, the capitalized abbreviation increasingly refers to the Musk-headed advisory body in political speech and writing.

References to all senses of doge sometimes incorporate jokes that use doge lingo. For example, the official Dogecoin website has described new releases as “Much upgrade, plz!”