[Ads-l] like a dog

[Stanton McCandlish]

This is a standard Southern Americanism (and of course pronounced "like a
dawg").  ANYthing can be "like a dog".  Hungry as a dog, ugly as a dog,
tired as a dog, excited as a dog and so on.  Unrelated to the "die like a
dog" phrase (which is "as a dog does", while the Southernism means "as a
dog is"). There are other essentially meaningless multi-use colloquialisms
like this, e.g. "enough to kill a horse": "hungry enough to kill a horse",
"tired enough to kill a horse", etc., etc.

--
Stanton McCandlish
McCandlish Consulting
4001 San Leandro St
Suite 28
Oakland  CA 94601-4055

+1 415 234 3992

https://www.linkedin.com/in/SMcCandlish


On Sat, Jan 6, 2018 at 9:31 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> > dumped like a dog
>
> I.e. "did him like he had a tail"
>
> On Sat, Jan 6, 2018 at 7:39 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > In a Tweet this a.m., the same popular politician reports that when
> former
> > naval officer, investment banker, and Hollywood producer Steve Bannon was
> > fired last year, he "cried and begged for his job."
> >
> > Now, "Sloppy Steve has been dumped like a dog by almost everyone."
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Wed, Aug 2, 2017 at 3:22 AM, W Brewer <brewerwa at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > I know naught of the practices of the proverbial dog catchers running
> for
> > > election, but in Taiwan stray dogs were caught and strangled on the
> spot
> > > (... uncontrollable giggle ...), until fairly recently. Stray cats
> fared
> > a
> > > gruesome fate, being killed & hung up in bags on trees.
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> -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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org