[Ads-l] like a dog

[Jonathan Lighter]

Granted, but "as a dog" is not "like a dog," and the politician in question
is not from the South.

The exx. provided of "as a dog" do not seem to imply the contempt that is
so evident in the "like a dog" locutions.

JL

On Sun, Jan 7, 2018 at 3:57 PM, Stanton McCandlish <smccandlish at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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
>



-- 
"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