[Ads-l] "shaggy dog...metaphor" 1887

[Peter Reitan]

I read the metaphor as a simple comparison of him to a dog that is literally shaggy, not an allusion to a  "shaggy dog story."
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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, November 6, 2019 2:39:33 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: "shaggy dog...metaphor" 1887

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Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
Subject:      "shaggy dog...metaphor" 1887
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My apology for repeating JL's find.
Here's a Jan. 21, 1887 use in The Evening Gazette, Monmouth, Illinois, p. 3=
 col. 2, with an image of a balding man:

....the usual view [of Republican leader] Tom Reed of Maine. Reed is a big =
Newfoundland dog in general appearance and manner, save that he is not so s=
haggy and hairy as he should be to make the metaphor precise.....

S. Goranson

https://idnc.library.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/illinois?a=3Dd&d=3DTEG18870121.1.=
3&txq=3D%2522not+so+shaggy%2522


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