Re: "to see a man about a dog"

Patricia Pasterham <gopuppygo1NOSPAMPLSE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Patricia Pasterham wrote:
When we were kids, if we asked my dad where he was going, and if he
didn't want to tell us, he would say "I'm going to see a man about a
dog". (Of course, being children we took this literally, and were
keen to know whether he was going to buy us a new puppy.)

What is the origin of this phrase? He was an English farmer, if that
is any help.

Patsy.
Australia

As OP, can I be so presumptuous as to say that in the context it was clear
to us that Dad never meant he was going to the loo. It was his way of
saying 'none of your biz', and often meant that he was buying a treat and
wanted it to be a secret.

May I be anti-scatalogical at this point in the discussion and ask again
whether anyone is familiar with the expresion in a non-loo sense?

Patricia, you did get answers affirming this. If they're no longer
available through your newsserver, you can look up the entire thread at
Google Groups using the Advanced Search. When someone gives you a URL
with useful info, please check that as well.

While you're there, you might look up previous discussions of the same
topic, which went the same way, as I recall -- there are some people who
only know the meaning "to pee," and others who say it can be an
all-purpose vague excuse. Then the discussion moves on to that endless
list of euphemisms meaning to pee -- but at least this time, we went on
to other obscure all-purpose excuses, which I enjoyed.

And why a dog? Why not a fish?

People can only speculate. My own speculation is that in the 19th
century, farmers and rural residents were always buying, selling, and
trading livestock including horses and dogs, so it was something a
person could say without needing to explain or justify. Those people
didn't deal in fish.

But, like many colloquialisms and bits of slang, even if you can track
down records of someone saying it long ago, you do not find there also a
reason or history. You don't always get even a basic sense of meaning.

The earliest one at Google Books for "see a man about a horse" is
probaby literal, because of the subsequent "he":


The Monster
by Edgar Everston Saltus - 1912
Page 88 - "I have to see a man about a horse. He
lives just off the Bois de Boulogne, in
the rue de la Pompe. Will you come up there with me?

Google won't let you look at more of the book, so it would be difficult
to find out what the speaker went on to do. This does reminds us that
when horses were still used daily, people did have to see others about
them!

The next oldest one feels like the euphemism:


Torch Song: A Play in Prologue and Three Acts
by Kenyon Nicholson - 1930
If you boys will excuse me. (Rising) Gotta see a man
about a horse.

Their oldest hit for "see a man about a dog" is in


Western Canadian Dictionary and Phrase-book: Things
a Newcomer Wants to Know; Words...
by John Sandilands - 1912

It's actually in a list of informal ways to invite someone to have a
drink with you. I can't copy the image and it's too long to type, but it
should show up here:

http://books.google.com/books?ie=ISO-8859-1&vid=0sQJgIUFw19_EGqlUC&id=XE
M__pxJgyUC&num=100&q=%22see+a+man+about+a+dog%22+date:0-1930&dq=%22see+a
+man+about+a+dog%22+date:0-1930&pgis=1

That might also tie in to the meaning of seeing a bootlegger -- in
temperance areas, euphemisms must have arisen for drinking alcohol.

--
Best -- Donna Richoux




.

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