Chapter Dog and Duck to Dogmatic Facts of D by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Dog and Duck to Dogmatic Facts

Dog and Duck A public-house sign, to announce that ducks were hunted by dogs within. The sport was to see the duck dive, and the dog after it. At Lambeth there was a famous pleasure-resort so called, on the spot where Bethlehem Hospital now stands.

Dog-cheap A perversion of the old English god-chepe (a good bargain). French, bon marché (good- cheap or bargain).

"The sack ... would have bought me lights
as good-cheap at the dearest chandler's in Europe."
- Shakespeare: 1 Henry IV., iii. 3.

Dog-days Days of great heat. The Romans called the six or eight hottest weeks of the summer caniculares dies. According to their theory, the dog-star or Sirius, rising with the sun, added to its heat, and the dog-days bore the combined heat of the dog-star and the sun. (July 3rd to August 11th.)

Dog-fall (in wrestling), when both wrestlers fall together.

Dog-grass (triticum repens). Grass eaten by dogs when they have lost their appetite; it acts as an emetic and purgative.

Dog-head (in machinery). That which bites or holds the gun-flint.

Dog-headed Tribes of India. Mentioned in the Italian romance of Guerino Meschino.

Dog-Latin Pretended or mongrel Latin. An excellent example is Stevens' definition of a kitchen:

As the law classically expresses it, a kitchen is "camera necessaria pro usus cookare; cum saucepannis, stewpannis, scullero, dressero, coalholo, stovis, smoak-jacko; pro roastandum, boilandum, fryandum, et plum-pudding-mixandum ..." A Law Report (Daniel v. Dishclout).

Dog-leech (A). A dog - doctor. Formerly applied to a medical practitioner; it expresses great contempt.

Dog-rose Botanical name, Cynorrhodos - i.e. Greek Kuno-rodon, dog-rose; so called because it was supposed to cure the bite of a mad dog (Rosa Canina, wild brier).

"A morsu vero [i.e. of a mad dog] unicum remedium oraculo quodam nuper repertum, radix
sylvestris rosæ. quæ cynorrhodos appellatur." -
Pliny: Natural History, viii. 63; xxv. 6.

Dog-sick Sick as a dog. We also say "Sick as a cat." The Bible speaks of dogs "returning to their vomit again" (Prov. xxvi. 11; 2 Pet. ii. 22).

Dog-sleep (A). A pretended sleep. Dogs seem to sleep with "one eye open."

Dog-star The brightest star in the firmament. (See Dog-Days .)

Dog-vane (A). A cockade.

"Dog-vane is a term familiarly applied to a cockade." - Smyth: Sailors' Word-book.

Dog-watch A corruption of dodgewatch: two short watches, one from four to six, and the other from six to eight in the evening, introduced to dodge the routine, or prevent the same men always keeping watch at the same time. (See Watch.)

Dog-whipper (A). A beadle who whips all dogs from the precincts of a church. At one time there was a church officer so called. Even so recently as 1856. Mr. John Pickard was appointed "dog-whipper" in Exeter Cathedral, "in the room of Mr. Charles Reynolds, deceased." (Exeter Gazette.)

Dog-whipping Day October 18th (St. Luke's Day). It is said that a dog once swallowed the consecrated wafer in York Minster on this day.