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A section for all you budding etymologists where each week the origin of a word or phrase is investigated.
This week it is..... Man’s best friend
The language relating to canines took a turn for the
An animal that performs valuable service to humans, better later in the 18th century. The first example in
often with reference to dogs.
print of the term ‘dog-basket’ dates from 1768. The need
A dog is a man’s best friend? Well, if the animal’s for a name for a piece of furniture provided specifically
popularity is anything to go by, perhaps that’s true; for the comfort of dogs shows a clear turning point in
according to the American Kennel Club, there are more attitudes towards them. This shift in outlook continued
pet dogs in the USA than there are people in Britain. steadily and in 1823 we first find ‘dog biscuits’, followed
However, the affection in which dogs are held by many in 1852 by ‘dog show’. By the mid 20th century we find
these days is a fairly recent development. How we used clear linguistic evidence that a dog was to be considered
to think about dogs can be judged by looking at how almost on a par with humanity - ‘dog-sitter’ (1942).
they have been portrayed in language over the centuries. The greatest claim to fame of Warrensburg, Missouri is
The first linguistic oddity to do with dogs concerns where that it is where the phrase ‘a dog is a man’s best friend’
the word ‘dog’ came from. The name was preceded by originated. In 1870, a farmer shot a neighbour’s dog and,
the perfectly good Anglo-Saxon word ‘hound’, which in the subsequent court case where the owner sued for
was also used in other European languages. ‘Dog’, in damages, the lawyer George Graham Vest gave a tearcommon with several other animal names ending in ‘g’, jerking speech that became known as the Eulogy to a
like frog, hog, pig and stag, seems to have been coined Dog:
around the 13th century for reasons that no one is at all “Gentlemen of the jury, a man’s dog stands by him
sure about.
in prosperity and poverty, in health and sickness. He
Prior to the 18th century, dogs were kept for hunting will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds
and defence and not as pets. The only deviation from blow, and the snow drives fiercely, if only he can be
that rule was that of the derided ‘lap-dog’, which John near his master’s side. He will kiss the hand that has
Evelyn recorded in his Diary, circa 1684, as a dog fit only no food to offer; he will lick the wounds and sores that
for ladies: Those Lap-dogs had so in delicijs [delight] come in encounter with the roughness of the world.
by the Ladies - are a pigmie sort of Spaniels.
He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were
Lap-dogs apart, the phrases used to refer to dogs in the a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains.
16th and 17th centuries indicate their image as being When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces,
vicious and disease-ridden: Hair of the dog that bit you, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey
first used in 1546 as a reference to rabies
through the heavens.” - And so on...
Cast someone to the dogs, 1556, Dog in the manger , A statue of Old Drum, as the deceased beast was called,
1564, If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with stands outside the town’s courtroom. Sadly for the
fleas, 1573, The dogs of war, 1601, Go to the dogs, 1619 Warrensburg Tourist Board Senator Vest didn’t originate
Also, phrases that indicate the treatment of dogs show the phrase, but he may have read it in a US newspaper,
that they were considered to be of little worth:
as it appeared in print fifty years earlier in The New-York
Lead a dog’s life (1528), Not fit for a dog (1625),
Literary Journal, Volume 4, 1821:
As sick as a dog (1705)
The faithful dog - why should I strive
The unfortunate mutts were considered so beyond the To speak his merits, while they live
pale that dog hangings, as punishment for chasing sheep In every breast, and man’s best friend
or whatever else dogs did naturally, were commonplace. Does often at his heels attend.
The phrase ‘give a dog a bad name’, 1705, was originally To paraphrase Harold Macmillan - ‘Fido, you’ve never
‘give a dog a bad name and hang him’.
had it so good’.
Enjoy a Day Tour at the Wildlife Rescue Center
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With our daily tours we explore the WFFT Rescue Center’s animals; we have bears,
45 m
from inutes d
elephants, gibbons and many others. You will learn about the animal’s
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life stories, and walk with our elephants to the nearby forest. You can shower Tran 0 minutes a Hin,
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