Mark Barrowcliffe

When Reg died and we first looked into getting a new dog, I was adamant we should pick up a mongrel from an animal-rescue shelter. It's not only that they're usually healthier and have better temperaments, they also fit with my world view - I prefer a ballpoint to a fountain pen, a barber to a hair stylist, and camping over glamping.

English Writer

Steven Weber

A culture cannot lie down with dogs and not become utterly infested with fleas. The dogs, in this case, are the mongrel media and the corporate overlords who have grown fat on manufactured controversy and fear mongering.

American Actor

Glenn McGrath

Australia play best when they've got a bit of mongrel about them, when they play hard out in the middle, when they don't give an inch, when they play an aggressive brand of cricket.

Australian Cricketer

Suranne Jones

I grew up surrounded by two farms and their fields. My earliest memories are of our mongrel dog running around and cows looking in the window while we ate our tea.

English Actress

Henry Cabot Lodge

I have loved but one flag and I can not share that devotion and give affection to the mongrel banner invented for the League of Nations.

American Politician

Sting

I see music as one language. If one musical form eats its own tail, it dies. So it needs to be a mongrel, it needs to be hybridised.

British Musician

Susie Dent

English has always been a mongrel tongue, snapping up words from every continent its speakers encountered.

English Scientist

Caroline Buchanan

In BMX, you need an inner mongrel, something that's a point of difference in the female category.

Australian Athlete

Genevieve O'Reilly

Irish Actress

Melvyn Bragg

English Journalist

Often used with a sense of affection for the dog, despite its lack of pedigree.

Affectionate Overtone

Calling a dog a mongrel is not insulting; it's a neutral description of its mix.

Not Offensive

Mongrel doesn't specify which breeds are mixed; it's any combination.

Non-Specific Breed

As an adjective, mongrel highlights diversity or variety in elements or components.

Diverse Elements

Can positively refer to the richness created from mixing cultures or styles.

Cultural Fusion

Not typically offensive when used to describe things, unlike when used for people.

Neutral Tone

Can be sensitive or offensive when describing people; use with caution.

Careful Usage

Some use it to express a complex identity, but it's not universally accepted.

Modern Identity

Its acceptability can depend on context, tone, and the speaker's relationship to the listener.

Context Matters

 you that don't know perhaps you've only recently discovered to the life safaris because we do get new viewers every now and again on each and every Safari you get your beautiful white legs you're not looking at a feral dog this is not some mutt some mongrel that has wandered in