DogGONE!!

[Charles Doyle]

When my son played high school football (in Georgia) in the late 1980s, the players--most of whom were African American--would affectionatey refer to their teammates (including white ones) by appending "Dog" to forenames or nicknames, especially monosyllables: Thus "Lew-Dog" and "Mike-Dog" and "Vince-Dog" (for example).

--Charlie
_____________________________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2007 09:06:46 -0700
>From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>
>This came to my attention too late to get into HDAS 1. Some exx.
>
>  1996 _Martin_ (Fox-TV): Come on, dog! Look!
>
>  1997 _N.Y. Times_ (Jan. 25) (Metro) 25: _Dog_...buddy.
>
>  *1998 _markie 19/M england_ (Usenet: alt.teens.pen-pals) (Nov. 27) http://groups.google.com/group/alt.teens.penpals/msg/d6e09ea8e8f68cdf?hl=en&: Oh and all americans say "hey dawg wazzup dawg" originality please!
>
>  1999 _Everybody Loves Raymond_ (CBS-TV): "Dog." That's a nice thing. You say it to your  friends. It means "I like you."
>
>  2000 M. Rich _Finding Forrester_ (film): I'm your _brother_, dog! ...You're the man now, dog!
>
>  2000 W. Shatner, on Priceline.com TV ad: You want some of this? Then you know what to do, dog! Bust a move!
>
>  2002 _Fox & Friends_ (FNC-TV) (May 10): He's a cool dog.
>
>  2002 _JAG_ (CBS-TV): Whyn't you call the nurse, dog?
>
>  By 1997 it was endemic among my (mostly white) undergraduates. It's usually used in direct address, and mostly to and in ref. to men.
>
>  JL
>
>Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Wilson Gray
>Subject: Re: DogGONE!!
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>This usage of "dog" is years old. My guess is that, if this is new to
>you, you don't have any relationships with black people deep enough to
>motivate you to demonstrate any degree of hipness nor do you pay any
>attention to TV shows that feature black characters. So, if I were
>you, I wouldn't give it a second thought. It's not worth the effort.
>
>-Wilson
>
>On 9/2/07, Doug Harris wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Doug Harris
>> Subject: DogGONE!!
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> From today's LA Times, by a female black reporter from
>> Britain, who spent 14 months in New Orleans post-Katrina.
>> (Note the 'dog' reference in the second paragraph):
>>
>> "Our people be everywhere," Dwayne Holmes, a heavyset African American
>> 16-year-old, said with a grin one day as he and his pals sat on a stoop on a
>> street in crime-plagued Central City.
>> Holmes wanted to know whether black youth in England also called each
>> other "dog" as a term of endearment.
>> For the most part, we have our own lingo, I told him.
>> ---------
>> Is this a new usage? Being neither black nor what the quoted reporter refers
>> to as a New Orleanian, I have no idea if this "term of endearment" is one
>> that's been in use there a while, or if it's to be found elsewhere, too.
>> 'Any insights, anyone?
>> (the other) doug
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>--
>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>-----
>-Sam'l Clemens
>
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