dog

GEORGE THOMPSON thompsng at ELMER4.BOBST.NYU.EDU
Mon Jan 10 21:49:06 UTC 2000


My father used to use the expression "I've got to see a man about a
dog" to mean "I'm going to wander off for a few minutes to find a
saloon and have a beer."  (Mother's translation.  Perhaps a full and
accurate decoding would have been: "I'm going to find a place where I
can take a leak, but I won't settle for any men's room that's not in
a saloon, and before I leave the saloon I will replenish my bladder
with a beer.)  I don't ever recall an occasion when he actually came
back with a dog.  That used to puzzle me.  In any event, my mother
and I were to stay where we were until he rejoined us.

RHHDAS finds the expression in the OED from 1867, and in the US from
1895.

GAT



More information about the Ads-l mailing list