Progress (of sorts) on hot dogs

[Gerald Cohen]

Thanks, Larry. As you know, credit for the discovery of the 1895 "hot dog"
quote goes to Barry Popik, who did extensive and very valuable research on
the term, and the researcher who found the 1893 quote was Fred Shapiro.

Cartoonist Dorgan (TAD) came to NYC from San Francisco in 1903, and "hot
dog" was well attested already in the 1890s. Btw, Dorgan was also a sports
writer, and a very good one too, so the idea that he couldn't spell
"dachshund" (and couldn't look it up in the dictionary) is in itself
farfetched.

In case any journalists see this message and would like information on the
origin of "hot dog," they need only ask.  Meanwhile, for anyone interested,
here is the relevant literature:

1) Gerald Leonard Cohen, Barry A. Popik, and David Shulman:  _Origin of the
Term "Hot Dog"_. 293 pages. Published by Gerald Cohen, University of
Missouri-Rolla (now named Missouri University of Science and Technology).
2004.
2) Bill Mullins: "First non-college attestation of _hot dog_ comes in an
1896 Utah newspaper." Comments on Etymology, vol. 34, no. 6 (March 2005),
pp. 2-3).
3) Bill Mullins: "A few early attestations of _hot dog_." Comments on
Etymology, vol. 35, no. 3 (Dec. 2005), pp. 12-13.
4) Barry Popik: "_Hot dog_ information: 1893 (Knoxville, TN), 1897 (Kansas
City, MO), 1899 (Yale).  Comments on Etymology, vol. 37, no. 1-2 (Oct./Nov.
2007), pp. 31-35. ---- (includes Fred Shapiro's discovery of the 1893
attestation)

Gerald Cohen
gcohen at mst.edu

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Original message from Laurence Horn, July 13, 2010:

 From today's Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/sports/baseball/13hotdogs.html

Hot dogs and baseball have a long history, though the details of
their relationship are as murky as the hot water that dirty dogs are
cooked in. Harry M. Stevens, a vendor at the old Polo Grounds in New
York, is widely credited with marrying the dog, the bun and baseball
when, in 1901, he started serving "dachshund sausages" on rolls.

Thomas Aloysius Dorgan, a cartoonist, was supposedly at the game and
could not spell dachshund, so instead wrote "hot dog." Researchers
later found that Dorgan was not at the Polo Grounds in 1901, and
discovered references in The Yale Record from 1895 to students who
"contentedly munched on hot dogs."


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I seem to recall "researchers" have pushed the date back farther.

LH

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