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

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

And I know it as "see a man about a mule".

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Laurence Horn
> Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2011 12:13 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Colloquialism: to see a man about a dog (antedating 1865
> November)
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> --------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Colloquialism: to see a man about a dog (antedating
> 1865
>               November)
>
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> --------
>
> I remember it as "see a man about a horse", which I see is included
> as an alterant at the wikipedia site.  Isogloss, anyone?  (Although I
> admit that in my native NYC, it would have been more of a challenge
> to find a horse than a dog to see a man about.)
>
> LH
>
>
>
> At 4:04 AM -0400 6/15/11, Garson O'Toole wrote:
> >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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>
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Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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