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worry [worry 词源字典]: worry: [OE] Worry originally meant ‘strangle’. It comes from a prehistoric West Germanic *wurgjan, which also produced German wügen ‘choke, strangle’. The sense ‘harass physically’ (as in ‘dogs worrying sheep’) emerged in the 16th century, via an intermediate ‘seize by the throat’, and the modern sense ‘vex, disturb’ came on the scene in the 17th century, but the verb was not used intransitively until the mid- 19th century.
[worry etymology, worry origin, 英语词源]
mutt (n.): 1901, "stupid or foolish person," probably a shortening of muttonhead (1803) in the same sense; see mutton and compare meathead, etc. Mutt was used by 1898 of a dog, especially a stupid one, and perhaps this is the same word formed independently (muttonhead also was used of stupid animals), or else a separate word of unknown derivation. Wright's "English Dialect Dictionary" (1900) has "Mutton! used in scolding a dog, prob. in allusion to the offence of sheep-worrying."
"That dog ain't no mutt," McManus would say as he stood behind the bar opening oysters; "no an he ain't no rube! Say! he's in it all the time when Charley trims the steaks." [Robert W. Chambers, "The Haunts of Men," 1898]
Used by 1910 in dog fancier publications to refer to a non-purebred animal.
worry (v.): Old English wyrgan "to strangle," from Proto-Germanic *wurgjan (cognates: Middle Dutch worghen, Dutch worgen, Old High German wurgen, German würgen "to strangle," Old Norse virgill "rope"), from PIE *wergh- "to turn" (see wring). Related: Worried; worrier; worrying.

The oldest sense was obsolete in English after c. 1600; meaning "annoy, bother, vex," first recorded 1670s, developed from that of "harass by rough or severe treatment" (1550s), as of dogs or wolves attacking sheep. Meaning "to cause mental distress or trouble" is attested from 1822; intransitive sense of "to feel anxiety or mental trouble" is first recorded 1860.