Yesterday, one of the newscasters on the evening news said he was “dog tired.” I’ve heard that phrase most of my life (but not so much recently.) The expression means (to me anyway) being utterly exhausted and you just want to flop down the way a dog flops down when it has over-exhausted itself. Anyhow, I got to wondering where it came from.
A little bit of extensive research on my part came up with a couple of possibilities…. apparently dog tired is an old english phrase — when written, it’s usually hyphenated to dog-tired. It derives from an old tale about Alfred the Great who used to send his sons out with his extensive kennel(s) of hunting dogs. Whichever of his sons (Athelbrod and Edwin) were able to catch more of the hounds would gain their father’s right-hand side at the dinner table that evening. These chases would leave them “dog-tired” but still merry at their victory.
An earlier form of the expression is “dog-weary” used by Shakespeare in the Taming of the Shrew (Act IV, Scene II,) when Blondello says, “I have watched so long that I am dog-weary.”
So once again, man’s best friend has become part of our everyday language. We’ve all used phrases like every dog has its day, let sleeping dogs lie, work like a dog, gone to the dogs, in the doghouse, hair of the dog, dog eat dog, sick as a dog, mean as a junkyard dog, dog and pony show, three dog night, tail wagging the dog, raining cats and dogs, let the dog bark, that dog won’t hunt or you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
I’m sure there are many, many others, but I’m just too dog-tired to think of them right now…..
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