The Amazing Adventures of Archibald Esq.
The Genius of Dog Bone Joint Engineering
As a regular reader of my humble dog blog pages, you are likely to know that doggish references pop up in the most diverse number of places. Dogs and hounds have crept their way into the whole of human life, from art, culture, literature, song, dance, and also - as in this instance - architecture.
So it won’t surprise intrepid readers to learn that there is not only such a thing as ‘Dog Bone Joints’ used in construction, but also that Dog Bone Joints are said to be better as weight-bearing support beam joints.
Read on…
Posted 01 Sep 08
Dog Sayings: Booze-Hound
A saying that draws on the persistence and endurance of your average hound is the (not-so-flattering and yet pleasant-sounding all the same) term ‘Booze-hound.’
The implication is that a ‘booze-hound’ is one who persistently and continuously searches out something to drink. In other words, a drunk. For example, when the former Russian president and notorious booze-hound Boris Yeltsin died he was called a booze-hound and a drunk in a Rolling Stone Magazine obituary.
Read on…
Posted 02 Nov 07
Dog Sayings: Dog Tooth
According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed. 2000) dogtooth means an ‘a canine tooth’ or an ‘eyetooth.’
But in architectural terms it is a 13th century English medieval ornament consisting of four leaf-like projections radiating from a raised center.
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Posted 08 Oct 07
Think Dachshund
As cute as the saying sausage dog is… if you like that kind of thing… I’d like to make a plea to all those doggish souls out there to opt for the infinitely preferable name: dachshund. Or, for Europhiles, the name ‘Teckel.’
Take it from me. This whole sausage dog routine. It’s not that cute. So stop it.
Awoof! Archibald Esquire
Posted 01 Oct 07
Dog Sayings: The Hair of the Dog
The common saying, ‘the hair of the dog’ is ancient. Records of the phrase go back to the time of William Shakespeare.
Brewer wrote in his Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898): “In Scotland it is a popular belief that a few hairs of the dog that bit you applied to the wound will prevent evil consequences. Applied to drinks, it means, if overnight you have indulged too freely, take a glass of the same wine next morning to soothe the nerves.”
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Posted 06 Jul 07
Dog Sayings: Dog Trot
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed. 2000) defines ‘dogtrot’ the noun as: 1. A steady trot like that of a dog. As an intransitive verb it implies to move at a steady ‘trot’, e.g. ‘dog-trotted’ and ‘dog trotting.’
How’s that for a circular definition?! Genius, eh?
Read on…
Posted 25 Jun 07
Dog Sayings: Dog Paddle
According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed., 2000), ‘dog paddle’ is a swimming stroke.
It is described as ‘a prone swimming stroke in which the head is kept out of the water and the arms remain submerged and are alternately thrust forward and pulled back while the legs kick.’
In dog paddle swimming the swimmer lies on their chest and moves their hands and legs alternately exactly as a dog does when swimming.
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Posted 04 Jun 07
Dog Sayings: Top Dog
Sometimes, when two-leggeds are feeling a little full of themselves, they describe themselves as being ‘top dog’ - which means numero uno, the one, the best, the biggest, the strongest. Primo! Primo! Arooof!
In this spirit, leaders of their respective fields are said to be ‘top dogs.’
This saying bucks the trend of the human bad habit of derogatory dog sayings, as well as subtly confirming my favourite Archibald hypothesis that it’s the society of hounds that made all the difference in the evolution of the featherless bipeds most of us dogs call companions. Awoof!
Check out Auntie’s Treasures if you’re interested in advertising your own top dog status. As for myself, my distinguished demeanour says it all….
But where did the saying come from?
Read on…
Posted 18 May 07
Word Hound: to Sleuth
A few hundred years ago, speakers of English used the term sleuthhound as a synonym for “Bloodhound”—a breed distinguished, of course, by its keen sense of smell and intense focus when sniffing out quarry.
By the 1800s, people had begun shortening sleuthhound to sleuth, and applying it to equally dogged human investigators.
Read on…
Posted 27 Apr 07
Word Hound: A Little Muse on Feistyness and Adoration
The linguistic forerunner of feisty is the word feist, an antiquated English term for “a small, mixed-breed dog.”
The noun feist, in turn, arose from an even older verb, to fist, which literally means “to pass gas.”
In Merrie Olde England, in fact, it was once common to express contempt for a dog considered annoying, referring to it as a fisting hound or a fisting cur. (Hence, once ‘unpacked’, a stincking or smelly dog.)
Eventually, non-dog-lovers shortened these phrases to either fist or feist—epithets still occasionally applied in parts of the United States today to small, mixed-breed dogs, particularly if they’re belligerent or persistent barkers.
As often happens when words are passed down from one generation to the next, the term feisty came to be applied more generally, not just to gassy little dogs, but to anyone similarly spunky or pugnacious.
Read on…
Posted 02 Mar 07
Dog Sayings: Doggy Bag
If the first thing you thought of was poop…. Well — you’d be wrong!
The saying ‘doggy bag’ refers to a bag of leftover food that is given to a customer of a restaurant to take home after a meal. One supposes that the implication was that the scraps would go to the family dog. A deserving treat for having guarded the house so well… (But everyone knows that the food was mainly for the two-leggeds.)
Read on…
Posted 07 Jan 07
Dog Sayings: Salty Dog, He Heh!
Some two-legged sayings that use ‘dog’ or ‘hound’ avoid the all-too-frequent derogatory connotations that human beans make when linking ideas to things doggish.
One such positive saying is that of a ’salty dog’, as the saying - pertaining to the idea of a lustful sailor - represents a certain kind of adventurous, lusty individual who lives life to the fullest. (That, bearing in mind that a less salubrious sailor dog-word is that of someone acting the role of a ‘dogsbody.’ Grrrwoooof!)
In the U.S. Marines and Navy, one who is a ’salty dog, Ahaaarh!’ is a sailor who is very experienced, having travelled much and seen more than his fair share of things. The term is used more in the lower enlisted ranks to establish some kind of credibility regardless of rank.
A ‘Salty Dog’ is a cocktail of vodka or gin and grapefruit juice, served in a glass with a salted rim.
Read on…
Posted 27 Sep 06
Dog Sayings (American): Dog Tired
According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed, 2000) ‘dog tired’ (pronounced: dôgtrd) means ‘extremely tired.’
Another dictionary I referred to gave a list of meanings and implications: dog-tired - drained of energy or effectiveness; extremely tired; completely exhausted; “he went to bed dog-tired”; “was fagged and sweaty”; “the trembling of his played out limbs”; “felt completely washed-out”; “only worn-out horses and cattle”; “you look worn out”.
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Posted 25 Sep 06
Dog Sayings: Dogsbody
I’ve not chewed over a dog saying for a while. I heard one the other day that made my ears perk up: ‘bone tired.’ But that’s only obliquely connected to things houndish… Surely one can’t get tired of bones?! (Even if they’re not good for us dogs). But what of a real ‘dog saying’?
Well folks, another dog saying that shows the human bean’s limited and shallow view of the role of dogs to human civilisation and the essential wisdom taught in the example and attitude of houndishness that most - but not all - (another grateful bow to Rabelais, awoof!) two-leggeds have is the concept of a ‘dogsbody’.
From what I can gather, a ‘dogsbody’ is a lowly person who gets all the dirty jobs, like taking out the trash, or sweeping up the pathways. Anything menial, disagreeable or boring somehow makes it into the job description.
Read on…
Posted 03 Sep 06
Dog Sayings: Walking the Dog
What is the provenance of that two-legged saying ‘walking the dog’? It’s popular in music, as evidenced by the song ‘Walking the Dog’ – recorded by many, including the early swinging-sixties Rolling Stones.
Some sources suggest the phrase was introduced into old American country music by singer Webb Pierce in the 1950s.
Read on…
Posted 14 Aug 06
A Little Houndish Cockney
Did you know that in the English dialect known as ‘Cockney’ originating in London, ‘Dog and Bone’ means telephone? No? Well - it does.
The phrase ‘telling bone’ for telephone was also sometimes used.
Cockney rhyming is a kind of slang. According to some, to be a Londoner is to be Cockney. Of course this is not really true. But there’s going to be a new website this summer, called ‘Cockney OnLine’ that can - when it’s launched - answer all our cockney questions. And if you’re looking for a new saying or two to add a little London spice to your speech, you’re advised to check out the dick’an’harry (translate to English as ‘dictionary’) devoted to the rhyming slang of East London streets.
For those with a little more time on their hands, you might enjoy to try and noodle your way through the on-line Cockney Slang Crossword Puzzle.
But back to Dog-’n-Bone. Having pondered the truth behind the saying, I’ve decided that the Cockney ‘Dog and bone’ for ‘telephone’ only underscores the essentially social dimension of the dog.
Which is perhaps why one of Kafka’s fundamental ‘laws of dogdom’ was that of sociability: one must say ‘hello’ and greet one’s fellow hound in the street and parks at each and every opportunity.
Awoof! A faithful citizen of London - Archie
Posted 09 Jul 06
Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense
Posted 19 Jun 06
Dog Sayings: A Chorus of Hounds
This postcard by Carl Bogh is entitled ‘Dog Howls, Boy Plays Horn.’ Notice the ‘howling dog’ is a standard smooth-haired black ‘n tan dachshund. Awoof! But then you may also take note of the fact that in this particular woodland scene featuring young man and two dogs, the boy sits on a log and blows on a horn. There is something tantalisingly mischievious about it. (Ah! But the mere presence of a dachshund guarantees sauciness!)
Alas, despite the fact it features a dachshund very much like my own self, I must confess that don’t much like this particular postcard. But it’s still worth having a look at. And after thinking ’bout it for a moment or two, and having taken it all, as a picture with meanings as it were, I decided that a much more satisfactory term for the proverbial ‘pack of hounds’ would be the richer sounding ‘a chorus of hounds.’
Read on…
Posted 15 Jun 06
©2008 Roleta Archibald, Awoof!™