"Hot Dog" in 1872?

[Fred Shapiro]

All right, get a load of this article found through American Periodical
Series.  I can't believe this is really a usage of _hot dog_
'frankfurter,' but the words "This is no sausage shop" could be read to
mean that the speaker is referring to a "cold dog" or "hot dog" or
"lukewarm dog" as a sausage.  At the least this could be considered to be
a usage of _dog_ 'sausage'.

1872 _Saturday Evening Post_ 27 July 8
Organist (angrily) -- I called to get Martini's Ecole d'Orgue.  I see it
advertised, and I want it.  Now, have you got that Ecole d'Orgue or not?
If you have, run it out, for I'm in a hurry.
Salesman -- You must take me for a fool, don't you?  This is no sausage
shop.  This is a music store.  What do you suppose we know about Martini's
cold dog, or his hot dog, or his lukewarm dog, or any other dog belonging
to any other man?  You must be crazy.  We don't deal in dogs.  Martini
never left his dog around here anywhere.  Why, you talk like a --
(suddenly calling to his fellow clerk) -- I say John here's a demented old
idiot in here wanting to buy some kind of an Italian cold dog.

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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