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Dog related phrases and their origins

'Tail that wags the dog'

This phrase is used to demonstrate a shift in power and is often used in relation to the media spinning the news. Kipling, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Von Arnum are noted as being individuals who first coined the phrase ‘the tail that wags the dog’. It appeared in Kipling’s 1892 The Conundrum of the Workshops and in Von Arnum's Fraulein Schmidt in 1907, and was used by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1935.

Sources: Oxford English Dictionary book of quotations, www.wordorigins.org and Google answers.

‘Working like a dog’

It is believed that this originates from the fact that a sheepdog works from dawn till dusk for only room and board and affection and this phrase is often used to describe someone who is working very hard/for long hours.

Sources: www.phrases.org.uk

‘Dogsbody’

The term ‘dogsbody’ is often applied to someone who does lowly work. It is believed that its origin relates to Naval usage in reference to the food that the more junior officers ate in the early 1800s – more often than not boiled peas or salt beef that had been stored on the boats at sea for a long time.

Sources: www.worldwidewords.org, and www.wikipedia.org

‘Dog’s dinner’

This phrase is often used to imply a mess such as ‘dressed up like a dogs dinner’ or ‘making a right dogs dinner out of this’. Although its origins are unknown it is most commonly believed to be linked to the fact that a dogs meal will often be full of different muddles of textures and colours and may indeed resemble a mess.

Sources: www.phrases.org.uk

‘In the dog house’

This is often used in relation to an argument – often between a couple in a relationship – whereby one of them is ‘in the wrong’ and therefore metaphorically should be sleeping in the doghouse or is ‘in the dog house’ rather than the couples bed. It is possible that it could also be linked to locomotives; in the early 20th century two ‘brakemen’ were required at each end of the train and at the front of the train there would also be a man known as the ‘fireman’ who stoked the fires to keep the trains running. With two men (brakeman and fireman) in the front of the train it was very cramped and so trains were built with small cabins in for the brakeman – these were known as dog houses. It is believed that this name refers to small ‘buildings’ that dogs sleep in.

Sources: www.phrases.org.uk