Colloquialism: to see a man about a dog (antedating 1865 November)

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Thu Jun 16 08:10:46 UTC 2011


On Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 1:12 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> I remember it as "see a man about a horse."

As do I. FWIW, only in Saint Louis, used in front of the ladies and
the chirren by men of my parents' age. We masculine children used
"take a leak," as our elders most likely did, too, when out of earshot
of childring and ladies.

OTOH, I didn't learn "take a _dump_" till I was in the Army.

Horse-drawn milk trucks, junk wagons, and other such vehicles were
common of the streets till some time After The War.

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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