Colloquialism: to see a man about a dog

[Joel S. Berson]

At 6/16/2011 11:33 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>At 11:23 AM -0400 6/16/11, George Thompson wrote:
>>My father was born in Brooklyn in the early 1890s.
>
>Mine too, only it was the late 1890s.  I don't remember him seeing a
>man about either a dog or a horse though, or at least not in so many
>words.  In fact I can't remember who I heard actually using the
>expression.  Might have been someone(s) in a movie or TV show, in
>which case my NYC background would be of limited relevance.

I can't be sure, but probably from one or more of my (NYC) uncles,
and if so would probably have been before 1956 or so.

Joel


>LH
>
>>Ca. 1950 he would use
>>"see a man about a dog" at least sometimes to mean that he was going to
>>leave my mother and me to find a bar and have a beer.
>>
>>GAT
>>
>>On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 7:43 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>>
>>>  At 6/16/2011 04:10 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>>
>>>   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."
>>>
>>>  IIRC, Larry grew up in NYC.  As did I, but I remember it as "dog".
>>>
>>>  Joel
>>>
>>>
>>>   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
>>>>
>>>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>George A. Thompson
>>Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ.
>>Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org