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Dog Tired....
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.....Where did that expression come from please?
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Dog tired is an old English phrase usually hyphenated to dog-tired. An adjectival phrase meaning to be physically exhausted, it derives from an old tale of Alfred the Great who used to send his sons out with his extensive kennels of hunting dogs. Whichever of his sons, be it Athelbrod or 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' yet merry at their victory.
Shaney, that's a wonderful story and - as you know - I would not normally quibble with a single word you've ever written, but where did you get it from? I ask solely because TOED says that dog-tired simply means "as tired as a dog after a long chase" with no reference to huntsmen and no recorded use of it prior to 1809. Sorry, ma'am!
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dog-tired#Idiom
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Try this one .
Sorry, Shaney, but I suspect the Wiktionary entry is a bit of folk etymology! I assume the Wiktionary has been created in a similar way to the Wikipedia...ie entries are made by whoever cares to make them and should be treated - even according to the guy who created the site himself - with caution.
I simply don't get the notion that it is supposed to relate to a tradition involving King Alfred and his sons, which is not referred to any later than Bede's Ecclesiastical History. Bede lived from 672 - 735 and Alfred from 849 - 899, so I can't grasp how the former could have written about the latter!
It also sounds as if the sons were sent out to catch the dogs themselves, rather than using them to catch game or whatever...another oddity, surely. It says: "Whichever of his sons were able to catch more of the hounds would gain their father's right hand side at the dinner table." (Surely it should be �was' not �were', which only adds to my doubts as to the qualifications of the writer.)
Perhaps I have misunderstood the link but the fact that the scholars at TOED have failed to find any such reference concerns me most of all.
But what the hey! I'll leave it at that, not suggesting in the least that you have got it wrong. Cheers
I simply don't get the notion that it is supposed to relate to a tradition involving King Alfred and his sons, which is not referred to any later than Bede's Ecclesiastical History. Bede lived from 672 - 735 and Alfred from 849 - 899, so I can't grasp how the former could have written about the latter!
It also sounds as if the sons were sent out to catch the dogs themselves, rather than using them to catch game or whatever...another oddity, surely. It says: "Whichever of his sons were able to catch more of the hounds would gain their father's right hand side at the dinner table." (Surely it should be �was' not �were', which only adds to my doubts as to the qualifications of the writer.)
Perhaps I have misunderstood the link but the fact that the scholars at TOED have failed to find any such reference concerns me most of all.
But what the hey! I'll leave it at that, not suggesting in the least that you have got it wrong. Cheers
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