Origin of Word "Underdog"

[Fred Shapiro]

The word "underdog" is said to have originated in a 19th-century song or
poem by David Barker ("The Under-Dog in the Fight").  Can anyone supply
any information about when this Barker text was first published, and
whether it was a song or a poem?

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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