The replacement of the doggy bag

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Fri Mar 7 05:51:52 UTC 2014


On Mar 6, 2014, at 10:04 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:

> It seemed to me as a child that my grandmother used the word "doggy bag" as a euphemism for "a bag for me." (When she had a dog, she also used it to mean a bag for the dog.)
>
> In my experience, buttressed by asking two people in the restaurant industry, people don't really use this expression much any more. They ask to get the rest to go.
>
> If it's true that this expression is indeed dying out, I wonder whether it's because there is a higher level of acceptability in society for taking uneaten food home.
>
> While looking on Google Images shows that this expression has not yet died out, it also shows that the "doggy bag" has taken on the meaning of a dog poop bag.
>
Wonder if there's a distinction between the doggie bag (take-out receptacle from restaurant) and doggy bag (for canine poop).  Just a late thought before sleep; please discount if all wet.

LH

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