[Ads-l] "underdog" redux

[Wilson Gray]

> caught one of our hands

So, this type of construction a century-and-a-half old.

Youneverknow.

On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 2:14 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:

> Despite other unsupported theories (like the saw-pit theory I mention in
> the column), it appears that Barker's "under dog" inspired "top dog" as
> well. (The original poem refers to "the dog on top.") Examples of "the top
> dog in the fight" (modeled on Barker's phrasing) appear as early as 1864.
>
> ----
> Boston Herald, July 2, 1864, p. 4, col. 3 [ProQuest]
> But this morning Billy was the "top dog in the fight," for Tim was fined
> $25 and costs.
> ----
> Ashtabula (Ohio) Weekly Telegraph, Nov. 12, 1864, p. 3
> https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16881547/top_dog/
> Deputy Marshal Dickinson in an effort to stop the melee caught one of our
> hands, and held it while waiting for some one to remove the top dog in the
> fight.
> ----
>
> --bgz
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 12:57 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > In the 1890s I have seen this explained as a series of poems, of which
> the
> > under dog is the first one praised, and the top dog is the last. Is this
> > also the source of "top dog"?
> >
> > DanG
> >
> > On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 12:06 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > My Wall St. Journal column this week is on the word "underdog" in honor
> > of
> > > the Philadelphia Eagles.
> > >
> > > https://www.wsj.com/articles/underdogs-beyond-the-super-
> > bowl-how-the-word-got-started-1516983394
> > >
> > > If paywalled, try accessing the column from my Twitter link:
> > >
> > > https://twitter.com/bgzimmer/status/956934354965553152
> > >
> > > I give credit to Fred Shapiro for discovering the origins of "underdog"
> > in
> > > the 1859 poem by David Barker, "The Under Dog in the Fight," as noted
> in
> > > the Yale Book of Quotations. The poem was reprinted in many newspapers
> > that
> > > year, but here is where it first appeared:
> > >
> > > New York Evening Post, Apr. 4, 1859, p. 1, col. 2
> > > http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn83030384/1859-04-04/
> > ed-1/seq-1.pdf
> > >
> > > (I don't think this cite has been shared before.)
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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

------------------------------------------------------------
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