"That dog won't hunt" (LBJ?)

[Charles Doyle]

Paul Brewster listed the expression in 1939, in "Folk 'Sayings' from Indiana," _AS_ 14:266.

Wilson's _Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs_ gives the parallel "That cock won't fight" from 1822; Taylor & Whiting's _Dictionary of American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases 1820-1888_ gives "That cat wouldn't fight" from 1869 (avoiding that word "cock"??); Whiting's _Modern Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases_ gives "That horse will not jump (run)" from 1931.

I have not searched the online data bases.

--Charlie

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