Chrysti The Wordsmith: Hair of the Dog

Greetings from Montana State University in Bozeman. I'm Christie the wordsmith. American English has developed quite a few expressions revolving around hair and its attributes. Let your hair down splitting hairs and bad hair day. But what about the curious phrase hair of the dog. We know this expression as lexical shorthand for a hangover cure consisting of a nip or two of the alcohol that got you intoxicated last night and it lives on in your pounding head this morning. The idiom embodies the notion that somehow alcohol can cure the effects of alcohol poisoning. The expression hair of the dog is an echo of the ancient practice of curing the effects of a dog bite with a poultice made of the hair of the very dog that mauled your flesh. So the full expression is really hair of the dog that bit you though of course today the dog bite is a metaphor for the savage effects of overindulgence. This expression showed up in print for the first time in fifteen forty six and a collection of English

proverbs. The compiler John Heywood wrote. I pray thee let me and my fellow have a hair of the dog that bit us last night. Find the remarkable stories behind our everyday expressions and any clichéd dictionary in any library or bookstore or enter a cliche in your search engine and see what comes up. From Montana State University a k g l t f m in Bozeman. I'm Christie the wordsmith Christie the wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry. Zoot web dot com.