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    Dog A Mans Best Friend

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    Ulla Wirtanen
    The document discusses how attitudes towards dogs have changed over time based on analysis of language used to describe dogs from the 16th century to present. Phrases from earlier centuries portrayed dogs negatively as vicious and disease-ridden, but language became more positive in the 18th century with terms like 'dog-basket'. The greatest shift occurred after a famous 1870 court case speech praising a dog's loyalty cementing the phrase 'a dog is a man's best friend'.

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    Dog A Mans Best Friend

    Uploaded by

    Ulla Wirtanen
    12 views3 pages
    The document discusses how attitudes towards dogs have changed over time based on analysis of language used to describe dogs from the 16th century to present. Phrases from earlier centuries portrayed dogs negatively as vicious and disease-ridden, but language became more positive in the 18th century with terms like 'dog-basket'. The greatest shift occurred after a famous 1870 court case speech praising a dog's loyalty cementing the phrase 'a dog is a man's best friend'.

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    Dog a mans best friend

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    The document discusses how attitudes towards dogs have changed over time based on analysis of language used to describe dogs from the 16th century to present. Phrases from earlier centuries portrayed dogs negatively as vicious and disease-ridden, but language became more positive in the 18th century with terms like 'dog-basket'. The greatest shift occurred after a famous 1870 court case speech praising a dog's loyalty cementing the phrase 'a dog is a man's best friend'.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    12 views3 pages

    Dog A Mans Best Friend

    Uploaded by

    Ulla Wirtanen
    The document discusses how attitudes towards dogs have changed over time based on analysis of language used to describe dogs from the 16th century to present. Phrases from earlier centuries portrayed dogs negatively as vicious and disease-ridden, but language became more positive in the 18th century with terms like 'dog-basket'. The greatest shift occurred after a famous 1870 court case speech praising a dog's loyalty cementing the phrase 'a dog is a man's best friend'.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    A dog is a man's best friend?

    Well, if the animal's popularity is


    anything to go by, perhaps that's true; according to the
    American Kennel Club, there are more pet dogs in the USA
    than there are people in Britain. However, the affection for
    dogs felt by many these days is a fairly recent development.
    How we used to think about dogs can be judged by looking at
    how they have been portrayed in language over the centuries.
    The first linguistic oddity to do with dogs concerns the origin of
    the word 'dog'. The name was preceded by the perfectly good
    Anglo-Saxon word 'hound', which was also used in other
    European languages. 'Dog', in common with several other
    animal names ending in 'g', like frog, hog, pig and stag, seems
    to have been coined around the 13th century for reasons
    about which no one is at all sure.
    Prior to the 18th century dogs were kept for hunting and
    defence and not as pets. The only deviation from that rule was
    that of the derided 'lap-dog', which John Evelyn recorded in
    his Diary, circa 1684, as a dog fit only for ladies:

    Lap-dogs apart, the phrases used to refer to dogs in the 16th


    and 17th centuries indicate their image to be of vicious and
    disease-ridden animals:

    Hair of the dog that bit you, first used in 1546 as a reference
    to rabies
    Cast someone to the dogs, 1556
    Dog in the manger , 1564
    If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas, 1573
    The dogs of war, 1601
    Go to the dogs, 1619
    Also, phrases that indicate the treatment of dogs show that
    they were considered to be of little worth:

    Lead a dog's life (1528)

    The unfortunate mutts were considered so beyond the pale


    that dog hangings, as punishment for chasing sheep or
    whatever else dogs did naturally, were commonplace. The
    phrase 'give a dog a bad name', 1705, was originally 'give a
    dog a bad name and hang him'.
    The language relating to canines took a turn for the better later
    in the 18th century. The first example in print of the term 'dog-
    basket' dates from 1768. The need for a name for a piece of
    furniture provided specifically for the comfort of dogs shows a
    clear turning point in attitudes towards them. This shift in
    outlook continued steadily and in 1823 we first find 'dog
    biscuits', followed in 1852 by 'dog show'. By the mid 20th
    century we find clear linguistic evidence that a dog was to be
    considered almost on a par with humanity - 'dog-sitter' (1942).
    The greatest claim to fame of Warrensburg, Missouri is that it
    is where the phrase 'a dog is a man's best friend' originated. In
    1870 a farmer shot a neighbour's dog and, in the subsequent
    court case in which the owner sued for damages, the lawyer
    George Graham Vest gave a tear-jerking speech that became
    known as the Eulogy to a Dog:
    "Gentlemen of the jury, a man's dog stands by him in
    prosperity and poverty, in health and sickness. He will sleep
    on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow, and the
    snow drives fiercely, if only he can be near his master's side.
    He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer; he will lick the
    wounds and sores that come in encounter with the
    roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper
    master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert,
    he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to
    pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey
    through the heavens." - And so on...

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