From ‘deor’ to ‘dieren’: how English ‘deer’ and Dutch ‘huisdieren’ share a root

In a Belgian supermarket, the sign ‘Huisdieren’ hangs above the pet aisle. The Dutch compound means ‘house animals’, the standard term for pets. Its second half, ‘dieren’, goes back to the same Germanic root as English ‘deer’ and German ‘Tier’. Old English once used ‘deor’ for any animal, but English narrowed it to the woodland cervid, while Dutch and German kept the broader meaning. So the word on a shop wall in Belgium carries with it the long story of how ‘deer’, ‘dier’, and ‘Tier’ branched out from a single root.