Colloquialism: to see a man about a dog (antedating 1865 November)

[Garson O'Toole]

Michael Quinion has an excellent webpage about the expression "see a
man about a dog." Here is a link.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-see1.htm

OED has "to see a man about a dog" listed as a colloquialism under the
headword "dog."

The Historical Dictionary of American Slang has "have to see a man
about a dog" (page 617) listed under "dog."

Wikipedia has an entry for "See a man about a dog":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/See_a_man_about_a_dog

All of these sources list the same citation as the earliest: a play
titled "The Flying Scud" by an Irish-born playwright named Dion
Boucicault. The date is either 1866 according to Michael Quinion and
Wikipedia; or c1867 according to OED and HDAS.

I cannot tell if anyone has actually seen the text of this play. It is
possible that these citations are based on evidence in a 1940 book
called America’s Lost Plays.

Here is a citation in a London periodical dated November 1865:

Cite: 1865 November 15, The Anti-Teapot Review: A Magazine of
Politics, Literature and Art Of Falling In and Out of Love, Page 135,
Houlston and Wright, London. (Google Books full view)

The husband will meekly excuse himself from offering an explanation;
feel himself henpecked; and twice a week, at least, will find that he
has to absent himself by going to London, to "see a man about a dog,"
or on some other important business.

http://books.google.com/books?id=GmgEAAAAQAAJ&q=dog#v=snippet&

I was prompted to explore this expression by a commenter at the
Freakonomics blog who was interested in the phrase "I got to see a man
about a horse."
http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/06/09/a-grain-of-salt/

Garson

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