Got on the dog (idiom)

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Gone to the dogs is a phrase meaning "(outer or health) in bad fall circumstances". The phrase is also used jokingly in a positive sense for dog lovers.

origin

There are various possible interpretations of the origin of the expression:

  • In the language of the miners, the trolley with which the ore or coal is transported is also called the hunt . The hunt is a box made of steel, or earlier wood, on wheels. Anyone who was no longer strong enough to work as a tiller was demoted to pushing wagons (hunt pushing), which meant significantly lower wages.
  • Another interpretation refers to the war chests , which were carried to pay the mercenaries during the war. In the lower part there was a wooden box (the dog) in which the "emergency reserve" was kept. So when you got the hang of it, the war chest was almost empty.
  • Another interpretation claims that a dog - a symbol for a guard - was painted on the bottom of the cash box. If there was so little money in the chest that you could see the dog, you had “hit the dog”. If you had to attack the reserve in the compartment below, you were "under the dog". Such a chest with a carved dog can be seen in the exhibition Castles and Chests at Lauenstein Castle near Kronach .
  • Another version of the Upper German states that spouses as dowry got a chest full of textiles. If these became less and less in the course of the marriage, i.e. not replenished, one got more and more to the bottom of the chest, the dog ( dogs in the Swabian dialect identical to below ).
  • The Brothers Grimm give in their German dictionary as the most likely interpretation in their opinion, a legal usage that said that "that, as the condemned [...] wore the rope around his neck, he should also wear the dog, to indicate that it is worth being slain and hung up like a dog, to be hung by the side of a dog ”. You go on to explain that “come to the dog, actually come up to the punishment for carrying the dog” means, and “now it means partly in contemptuous or bad external circumstances, partly falling with one's health.”

Contradictory meaning

Dealer with dog carts (around 1900)

As the local calendar of the Hersfeld-Rotenburg district describes, the saying “got on the dog” used to be seen as a sign of social advancement. In this case, it meant being able to afford a dog team instead of having to use muscle power. Traders and peddlers who could not afford this transported their goods on their own in wheelbarrows, handcarts, backpack baskets , a thrown cross sack or sold them in a vendor's tray.

However, this interpretation is also given for the negative use of the saying: While wealthy farmers drove to the market with a team of horses, poorer small farmers had to fall back on the team of dogs. Anyone who, for financial reasons, was now forced to sell their horse and instead let the farm dog pull their market wagon, had "got on the dog".

Adaptations

Several books, films and TV programs are titled On the Dog :

literature

  • Lutz Röhrich: Lexicon of proverbial sayings . Freiburg 2003
  • Duden - The dictionary of origin . Mannheim 1989; P. 295.
  • Tilo Cramm, Joachim Huske: Miners' language in the Ruhr area .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Encyclopedia entry: phrase / idiom: come to the dog or have come to the dog. In: Redensarten.net. Andre Przybilla, private website, undated, accessed August 24, 2014.
  2. ^ Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm : Dog : Entry 10 and 11. In: German Dictionary . Volume 10, Leipzig 1854-1960, column 1915.
  3. ↑ B. Miehe: home calendar of the Hersfeld-Rotenburg district. Gershausen 1986, p. 69 (archived in the Marburg State Archives under the file numbers 180 HEF 1365 and 1369).
  4. ↑ Sebastian Trossen: 1000 sayings and proverbs. Trier 1983, p. 153.
  5. ↑ http://simpsonspedia.net/index.php?title=Auf_den_Hund_gekommen
  6. ↑ http://www.imdb.de/title/tt1345864/
  7. ↑ http://www.imdb.de/title/tt0104804/