[Ads-l] Hair of the dog

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

There is a pertinent discussion on English Language & Usage Stack
Exchange. Commentator Sven Yargs presents several interesting
citations including a 1546 citation that is verifiable via Early
English Books Online (EEBO).

Website: English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
Title: The saying “Hair of the Dog”
Answer by Sven Yargs on July 26, 2019 (edited August 13, 2019)

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/5332/the-saying-hair-of-the-dog

[Begin excerpt]
. . . relevant instances do occur in English at least as early as
1545. From John Heywood, A Dialogue Conteinyng the Nomber in Effect of
All the Prouerbes in the Englishe Tongue Compacte in a Matter
Concernyng Two Maner of Mariages (1546):
[Begin nested excerpt]
Early we rose, in haste to get awaie. / And to the hostler this
mornyng by daie / This felow calde, what how felow, thou knaue, / I
praie the leat me and my felowe haue / A heare of the dog that bote vs
last nyght. / And bytten were we both to the brayne aryght, / We sawe
eche other drunke in the good ale glas, / And so dyd eche one eche
other, that there was.
[End nested excerpt]
[End excerpt]

Searching EEBO would be much easier if there were text "overlays"
using modern spelling and phrasing. Researchers would be able to
search the original text and/or the overlay text.

Example:
Original: A heare of the dog that bote vs last nyght.
Overlay / Translation: A hair of the dog that bit us last night

It is great that part of the EEBO database is available for free. It
would be nice to have the scans in addition to the text.

Garson

On Fri, Jan 1, 2021 at 3:19 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> There's nothing implausible about the suggested origin of "hair of the
> dog."  It may have been a local bite therapy unmentioned in print.
>
> The only other appearance of "child's piss," for example, in EEBO or ECCO,
> is in Gervase Markham's
> _Markham's master-piece: containing all knowledge belonging to the smith,
> farrier, or horse-leach, touching the curing all diseases in horses_
> (London: Wotton & Coniers, 1703). (He branches out into human ills in this
> case..)
>
> Besides the immediate application of still warm, raw chicken guts (to draw
> out the spittle), Markham recommends for the bite of a mad dog "Calamint,
> Seed of Wild Tares, Sea-Onions, Water-Cresses, Rue, Balsam, Vinegar, Asses
> Milk, Child's Piss, Garlick, Gentian, Mint, Ditany."
>
> And all still work equally well!
>
> JL
>
> On Fri, Jan 1, 2021 at 2:07 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> > > On Jan 1, 2021, at 1:53 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > The OED records the practice from the mid-18th century, but the phrase,
> > > applied to drinking, goes back more than 200 years before that.
> > >
> > > But though _The Kitchin-physician, or, A guide for good-housewives in
> > > maintaining their families in health_ , by "T. K., Doctor in
> > > Physick"(London: Samuel Lee, 1680), recommends the "hair of the dog that
> > > bit you" as a treatment for hangover, no such advice is given "Against
> > the
> > > biting of a Mad-dog."
> > >
> > > For that, "Eat sweet brier-wort, and wash the hurt with a young Childs
> > > Piss, or with the decoction of Rhue, Figs, red-Coleworts, and Salt
> > mingled
> > > with honey and butter."
> > >
> > > JL
> >
> > Perhaps the recourse to the hair of the offending dog was needed absent a
> > suitably micturating young child or red colewort.  Better safe than sorry.
> >
> >
> > >
> > > On Fri, Jan 1, 2021 at 1:14 PM David Daniel <dad at coarsecourses.com>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > >> Dictionary.com is saying that the expression "hair of the dog" or the
> > >> longer
> > >> version "hair of the dog that bit you" comes from an old practice of
> > >> putting
> > >> actual hair from the actual offending dog into the wound of the dog's
> > bite
> > >> as protection against rabies. Is that correct?
> > >> Happy New Year, all.
> > >> DAD
> > >>
> > >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> > >> 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
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > 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

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