Progress (of sorts) on hot dogs

[Joel S. Berson]

At 7/13/2010 02:46 PM, Gerald Cohen wrote:
>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.

I suppose "hot dog days" doesn't mean a double-header at Yankee Stadium?  :-)

Joel


>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
>
>*    *    *    *   *
>
>
>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."
>
>
>=======
>
>I seem to recall "researchers" have pushed the date back farther.
>
>LH
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org