Barry Popik sends 1890's information on "Hot Dog"

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Wed Feb 11 18:47:23 UTC 2009


My suspicion is that "hot dog!" (a euphemism for "hot damn!") may predate
the application to the comestible.

And "Quick and Dirty" in 1894?  I think that's quite a discovery too!  IIRC,
it burst on the TV news scene only in the 1980s.

JL

On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 1:21 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
> Subject:      Barry Popik sends 1890's information on "Hot Dog"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Barry Popik sent the message below to several ads-l members, and I now
> forward it to the entire list.  Barry has done extensive research on "hot
> dog," and in 2004 he, the late David Shulman and I authored a book on the
> term.
>
> When I have time, I'll look closely at the new information to help
> determine its significance.
>
> Gerald Cohen
> > ----------
> > From:         Barry Popik
> > Sent:         Tuesday, February 01101520092009 4:21
> > Subject:      "Hot Dog" in Google Books (1893?, 1894, 1896)
> >
> > I noticed that Google Books has digitized some Yale material and much
> else.
> > ...
> > <a href="
> http://books.google.com/books?id=tToiAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA92&dq=%22hot+dog%22+date:1890-1899&lr=&num=100&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ei=K0-RScGgIISUzATlpKz1CQ">Google
> Books</a>
> > MIAMI UNIVERSITY
> > THE RECENSIO
> > COLLEGE ANNUAL
> > 1893
> > VOLUME ONE
> > From the Press of
> > The Oxford News Company
> > Oxford, Ohio
> > Pg. 92:
> > FAVORITE EJACULATIONS.
> > (...)
> > "Hot! Dog!"
> > ...
> > ...
> > <a href="
> http://books.google.com/books?id=lR9MAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA155&dq=%22hot+dog%22+date:1890-1899&lr=&num=100&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES&ei=K0-RScGgIISUzATlpKz1CQ">Google
> Books</a>
> > December 1894, <i>Yale Literary Magazine</i>, pg. 155:
> > The morning summons of the alarm clock is the voice of an angel of wrath
> proclaiming the dawning of a perennial day of judgment, and the sleepy
> proprietors of the "Quick and Dirty" and the "Hot Dog on Wheels" grow to
> know our nightly visits so well that they call us by our first names; and
> the State street canine digs up all his buried bones and retires into
> forests about Lake Whitney until the raw material for domestic frankfurters
> returns ot its par value.
> > ...
> > ...
> >
> >
> > The New Harvard Song Book: A Collection of the Latest College Songs and
> ...? - Page 142
> >
> > by Robert Treat Whitehouse, Frederick Bruegger - Students' songs - 1896 -
> 92 pages
> >
> > Oh those little old hot dogs ! Those little old hot dogs ! ... We would
> put
> > fourteen away Just before we hit the hay > ->  Those little old hot dogs
> that ...
> > ...
> > ...
> >
> >
> > The Harvard Advocate? - Page 107
> >
> > by Harvard University - College students' writings, American - 1896
> >
> > Soon we reached it, and plumping ourselves down on the benches, filled
> ourselves
> > with " hot dogs " and steaming coffee, that cheered and warmed us. ...
> > ...
> > ...
> >
> >
> >   _____
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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