hot diggedy dog (1921), peanuts and buggy ride (1922)

Benjamin Zimmer bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU
Tue Feb 22 18:36:39 UTC 2005


On Tue, 22 Feb 2005 02:29:23 -0500, Benjamin Zimmer
<bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:

>http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=430182
>The Harvard Crimson
>Published on Friday, December 18, 1925
[...]
>"For example 'hot dog' or 'hot diggedy dog' the latter one of my own
>expressions, are exclamations of joy which express more than could be
>conveyed in half a dozen sentences." [Walter Catlett]

For the "hot dog" files?

* "hot diggity/diggety/diggedy dog" (HDAS 1923, OED2 1924)

-----
Atlanta Constitution, Nov 16, 1921, p. 8, col. 8
Bits of New York Life, by O.O. M'Intyre
As Walter Catlett chirps 'Hot-diggedy-dog!'
-----
Atlanta Constitution, Sep 12, 1922, p. 6, col. 4
Bits of Paris Life, by O.O. M'Intyre
And the Americans responded with "Hot--diggedy--dog" -- a phrase that has
been popularized here and amuses the Frenchmen.
-----
Iowa City Press Citizen, Oct 21, 1926, p. 8, col. 5
New York Day by Day, by O.O. McIntyre
[From N-archive -- Atlanta Constitution on Proquest only goes to 1925]
There are many claimants to the doubtful honor of introducing that
over-worked bit of slang "Thanks for the buggy ride." It really goes back
to our father's time but was revived on Broadway by Walter Catlett in
"Sally" when it opened at the New Amsterdam theater, in January, 1921.
His version was "Thanks for the peanuts and buggy ride" and it was thus
shortened. He was also the first to introduce "Don't be stupid!", which
about a year ago became "Don't be dull." And again he revived "Hot dog!"
-- his version being "Hot diggedy dog."
-----

OED2 has a different 1926 cite for "thanks for the buggy ride".  Here's a
1922 "peanuts and buggy ride" cite without an attribution to Catlett:

-----
Atlanta Constitution, Jan 25, 1922, p. 4, col. 5
Bits of New York Life, by O.O. M'Intyre
She was a little bored by it all, but tried to appear friendly, but when
she walked to her hotel with him and told him goodbye she could not
refrain from calling out: "Thanks for the peanuts and buggy ride."
-----

(I know Barry has looked through O.O. McIntyre's syndicated columns, but I
didn't see any of these in the archive.)


--Ben Zimmer



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