dog-eat-dog (1872)

[Laurence Horn]

At 6:38 PM -0400 5/5/05, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>OED has:
>
>-----
>_dog-eat-dog_, phr. used esp. attrib. of a ruthlessly competitive attitude
>(with allusion to the proverb ‘dog does not eat dog’: cf. quot. 1858 s.v.
>17s)

and when was the first "doggy-dog (world)" cite?

>
>1931 ‘D. STIFF’ Milk & Honey Route xv. 169 He knows and lives the justice
>of the jungle as well as he knows and lives the *dog-eat-dog code of the
>main stem.
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>
>Here's a much earlier attributive usage:
>
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>1872 _New York Times_ 5 Aug. 5/5 Some of the Texan Democratic journals
>take a statesmanlike view of the "dog-eat-dog" relations existing, and
>naturally, between those who mistakenly _follow_ the piebald candidate and
>those who only propose _to use_ him.
>-----
>
>But how old is the expression "dog eat dog"?  The Early American
>Newspapers database has articles headlined "dog eat dog" back to 1794,
>referring to various cases of like attacking like:
>
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>August 5, 1794
>Gazette of the United States
>"Dog Eat Dog." Halifax, N. S. July 10
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>June 29, 1808
>Connecticut Courant
>>>From Burlington, (Vermont.) June 17. "Dog Eat Dog"
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>August 23, 1819
>Baltimore Patriot
>Dog Eat Dog
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>
>OED says "dog eat dog" comes from the proverb "dog does not eat dog" but
>only lists a quote from 1858.  _America's Popular Sayings_ by Gregory
>Titelman traces the expression back to the Latin "Canis caninam non est"
>but dates its U.S. usage to 1792 (_Modern Chivalry_ by Hugh Henry
>Brackenridge).  Here's a slightly earlier U.K. example, from N-archive's
>haphazard records for the _Times_ of London:
>
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>1789 _Times_ (London) 19 Jun. 3/1 As it is an established fact, that
>sharper will not rob sharper, nor dog eat dog.
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>
>Fred Shapiro no doubt has earlier variations.
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer