"rush the growler"--(reply to questions)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>   Once again, we deal with the imagery of a hunter going after a
>downed duck, presumably by sending his dog after it. We know this
>because of the attested expression "chase the duck" (drink beer;
>fetch/send for beer) and the attested form "duck" (can of beer).
>
>    This "chase the duck" clarifies "rush the growler"; the hunter is
>here causing his dog (the growler, even if this is not a standard
>term for "dog") to rush. Where to? Why, presumably to the downed duck.
>
>    Now, once the expression spread beyond hunters, "growler" (in its
>reference to the dog) would no longer make sense to the speakers
>using the term. What these non-hunting speakers saw before them was a
>child and a pail, and the child was supposed to rush to the local bar
>and come back with a pail full of beer. So the thirsty adult was now
>causing the pail to be rushed to the bar. The child was carrying it,
>of course, but the speaker was focusing his attention on the pail.
>
>     Hence: "growler" in "rush the growler" means "a pail in which
>beer is to be brought back" (not just any pail). "Rush the can" has
>the exact same meaning, and here "can" says directly what is meant.

I don't have immediate access to the paper detailing this (local library
has vols. 1-5 only). I don't find the above derivation to be self-evident
given the material above and in my dictionaries and in this list (that's
not to say that I consider it impossible or even extremely improbable). The
hunting metaphor derivation would seem to require (1) that "duck" = "beer
container" predated "rushing the growler"; (2) that "rushing the growler"
predated "growler" = "beer container" in other contexts; (3) that "growler"
was a recognizable reference to a hunting dog. I don't know of any evidence
to support any of these conditions, although the evidence might exist
somewhere ... or of course the speculation might be correct even if there
is no documentary evidence. I surely would like to see an alternative like
"rushing the dog" at least once if this was the evolution.

Here is an alternative etymology (completely speculative, but with a little
bit of supporting evidence). The original meaning of "growler" may have
been "chamber pot" (analogy: "thunder mug" in the same sense). "Growler"
HAS been used in this sense [HDAS, 1942], although I don't know of an early
attestation; "duck" was used for "urinal" or "bedpan" early in the 20th
century (and perhaps earlier?). The following from HDAS (Greenough &
Kittredge, 1900) gives some indication that the word "growler" might have
been recognizable as unsavory in 1900:

<<Not long ago the very vulgar slang phrase "rush the growler" was quoted
in a dignified and irreproachable article in a daily newspaper.... A score
of such references might make the reader forget that this most
objectionable expression ever was slang, or had any offensive associations.>>

... what offensive associations? Maybe just drunkenness, although it would
seem that the use of any expression with the same sense would be just as
objectionable if this were the problem .... Perhaps some -- but not all --
remembered in 1900 that "rushing the growler" was originally "rushing the
piss-pot" or so?

I don't know whether this hypothesis has any merit. We make our guesses
from the evidence, which is often inadequate.

-- Doug Wilson