Hot dog etymology: popular perceptions

[Douglas G. Wilson]

I'm sure one of the local "hot-doggers" has made some sort of survey --
perhaps only informal -- regarding the impressions of the "man on the
street" as to the origin of the term "hot dog" = "sausage". I don't know
the results, though.

I inquired of two young persons who AFAIK have never been to a "Dog 'n'
Suds": "Why is a hot dog called a 'dog'?"

An 8-year-old: "Maybe somewhere they were once made from dogs."

A 12-year-old: "I think somebody once drew a cartoon of some kind of dog --
something like 'dash-hound'? -- served as a sausage -- but he couldn't
spell the name so he wrote 'dog' ... I can't remember the whole story."
["Where did you hear this story?" "I can't remember."] [I guarantee that I
did not tell this story.]

[Where do they pick these things up? The unfamiliarity of the pronunciation
of 'dachshund' to this young person -- whom I know well -- suggests to me
that the story was read -- and not very carefully -- rather than heard at
school or on TV (in which case the tentative pronunciation probably would
have been 'dox-hoond' or so). I presume it may have come from the Web. Then
again (I hope not) might some local schoolteachers say 'dash-hound'?]

The 8-year-old was elated when I expressed my opinion that the "dog-meat"
story was probably closer to the truth than the "cartoon" story quoted by
the more erudite and sophisticated 12-year-old.

-- Doug Wilson