Colloquialism: to see a man about a dog

[Ronald Butters]

My grandfather (born in the 1880s) excused himself ti urninate by saying he had to shake the dew off his lilly.

"I had to see a man about a horse" was a general deliberately vague excuse, usually given after one had been unexpectedly delayed, and it implied a reluctance (which could include "too trivial to mention, "I don't want to say in front of these other folks," "I'm embarrassed at the reason," and indeed almost anything) to explain why one was delayed. 

"I have to see a man about a horse" as a way of excusing oneself to go to the bathroom, would have seemed rather overkill. Why not just say, "Excuse me for a moment"?


On Jun 16, 2011, at 12:09 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:

> At 11:56 AM -0400 6/16/11, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>> At 6/16/2011 11:33 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>> At 11:23 AM -0400 6/16/11, George Thompson wrote:
>>>> My father was born in Brooklyn in the early 1890s.
>>> 
>>> Mine too, only it was the late 1890s.  I don't remember him seeing a
>>> man about either a dog or a horse though, or at least not in so many
>>> words.  In fact I can't remember who I heard actually using the
>>> expression.  Might have been someone(s) in a movie or TV show, in
>>> which case my NYC background would be of limited relevance.
>> 
>> I can't be sure, but probably from one or more of my (NYC) uncles,
>> and if so would probably have been before 1956 or so.
>> 
>> Joel
> 
> Aha, that could have been the source for me as well.  I'll try to
> remember to ask my aunt if she remembers my Brooklyn-raised uncle
> (died at 90 last year so I can't ask him) going off to see those men
> about those quadrupeds, and for what actual purpose.
> 
> LH
> 
>>> 
>>>> Ca. 1950 he would use
>>>> "see a man about a dog" at least sometimes to mean that he was going to
>>>> leave my mother and me to find a bar and have a beer.
>>>> 
>>>> GAT
>>>> 
>>>> On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 7:43 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> At 6/16/2011 04:10 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>  On Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 1:12 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>> > I remember it as "see a man about a horse."
>>>>> 
>>>>> IIRC, Larry grew up in NYC.  As did I, but I remember it as "dog".
>>>>> 
>>>>> Joel
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>>  As do I. FWIW, only in Saint Louis, used in front of the ladies and
>>>>>> the chirren by men of my parents' age. We masculine children used
>>>>>> "take a leak," as our elders most likely did, too, when out of earshot
>>>>>> of childring and ladies.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> OTOH, I didn't learn "take a _dump_" till I was in the Army.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Horse-drawn milk trucks, junk wagons, and other such vehicles were
>>>>>> common of the streets till some time After The War.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> -Wilson
>>>>>> -----
>>>>>> 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.
>>>>>> -Mark Twain
>>>>>> 
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>>>>> 
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>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> --
>>>> George A. Thompson
>>>> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ.
>>>> Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
>>>> 
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>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>> 
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>> 
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