Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Wordy Wednesday-Hair of the Dog

Today, the opposite of worldess  Wednesday a Wordy Wednesday.  I started wondering about the origins of the phrase "hair of the dog" when I wrote about WC Fields on January 29.   I took Bob's photo for the post posing with an empty beer bottle.

Its impossible to see in the photo but the beer Bob is posing with is Hair of the Dog's Adam.  

http://hoptopia.com/system/images/37/original/Hair_of_the_Dog_Adam_Hearty_Old_World_Ale_Batch_73.jpg 

It has a bulldog on it which is why I bought it from Whole Foods about a year ago.  It was fairly tasty, but for me the bottle was the selling point.

 According to  phrase finder Hair of the Dog describes a small measure of alcohol meant to cure a hangover.   The full phrase "hair of the dog that bit me" refers to an old Scottish belief that if a person was bitten by a rabid dog a hair from the same dogs applied to the wound would cure them.  It is similar to the phrase "like for like" meaning that the cure for something is often also its cause.  The phrases connection to alcohol dates back at least to the time of Shakespeare.  Whether or not the cure works is a matter of debate, but the phrase is certainly not going away any time soon.

10 comments:

  1. I always found that hair of the dog phrase interesting too! It's neat to find out where these sayings originated!

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  2. That's cool! I love learning about where expressions and words come from.

    Your pal, Pip

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  3. Don't you just love sayings? We have a book on word origins that is pretty interesting...I should look for a phrase origin book.

    Like you, I would have bought the bottle just for the label too. You have too!

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  4. Sooo interesting! I love learning from you!
    Stewey

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  5. Neat facts. Mom says I'm not allowed to drink the alkihowl, but the bottle is very fun! Bob looks dashing as usual.

    Kitty+Coco

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  6. Oh how interesting! I enjoyed learning the origin of the phrase.
    I agree with you about the bottle to be the selling point :-) Once I got wine just because the shape of the bottle was a kitty :-)

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  7. Hi there! Bob does look soooo cute with the beer in the photo! As you know I am a bit of an alcoholic puggy sharing my Dads booze from time to time!
    I’m from Wales which is real close to Scotland I knew where the saying originated but found it so cool that you posted it, it’s very interesting to find out what different sayings mean! I don’t really drink but Mum says that if Dad has a "lady dog" of a hangover she always makes him either tomato juice or orange juice with the drink about a shot of the drink he had before, like vodka for example! Have you seen the movie "Life or something like it" with Angelina Jolie? She has "the hair of the dog" in that film, when she has a hangover!!
    Mum is a sucker for packaging too, on Halloween she gets this cider because it has a ghost and scary looking pumpkin on it ... she dosent even like cider!!! Hee,Hee! Love licks and tummy rubs from Frank xxxxx

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  8. Thanks for sharing--We will have to look for it a Whole Foods.

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  9. The bottle is neat and our mom makes a purchase based on similar things, although she has never heard of "hair of the dog". We learn many things from Urban Hounds!

    Nina, Myshka, Sasha, Betsy, Lucy, Phoebe and Lily

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