The replacement of the doggy bag

[Benjamin Barrett]

On Mar 7, 2014, at 9:15 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: The replacement of the doggy bag
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 3/7/2014 12:51 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>> 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.
>
> I still hear (and use) "doggy bag" occasionally for take-home at
> restaurants in the Boston area.  But I must confess I sometimes think
> (unappetizingly) of the other context; I think it has taken on that
> second meaning.

Haha. Perhaps _that's_ the reason the word is falling out of use! BB

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