shock [M16th] The shock that now means ‘a sudden upsetting event or experience’ came from French choc in the mid 16th century with the sense ‘an encounter between two charging forces or jousters’, and in English it started life as a military term. Shocking meaning ‘very bad’ is first found at the beginning of the 18th century An unkempt or thick shock of hair probably did not get its name from its shock value. The word originally referred to a dog with long shaggy hair—the poodle was a typical shock dog, though the term is long obsolete. It may be the same as earlier shough, a lapdog said to have originated in Iceland. Shakespeare in Macbeth wrote of ‘spaniels, curs, shoughs’.