A HAIR OF THE DOG THAT BIT ME

In one of my recent posts, I had used the expression 'a hair of the dog that bit me' which intrigued some friends. I was surprised because I had thought it was a popular phrase.

So I tested it on five other persons; only two knew what it stood for. That was a revelation to me. Therefore I thought that this expression (and a few others) could be the subject of a post.

"Hair of the dog that bit you", or "Hair of the dog" for short is a colloquial expression for the cure of a hangover from the over-indulgence of the previous night. It is actually a small measure of the same drink, consumed with the aim of lessening the effects of a hangover. Something like homeopathy (Similia similibus curantur) or vaccines.

But where do the dog and its hair come from? The expression originally referred to the popular belief that a few hairs from the tail of the dog that bit you applied to the wound will prevent evil consequences!

By rights, the exclamation "What the Dickens!" to express surprise, shock of befuddlement should be an open-and-shut case: a tribute to Charles Dickens, right? The master story-teller whose plots have suspense-filled twists and this expression of real-life shock and surprise must surely be related, one concludes.

Except that they are not connected! Well, it is quoted by William Shakespeare in The Merry Wives of Windsor, where Mrs. Page says , "I cannot tell what the dickens his name is ..." And that great wordsmith had walked this earth centuries before Charles Dickens came with his stories of Victorian London.

Suppose I am struggling with a puzzle: In what ratio should coffee beans costing Rs 360 per kg and chicory costing Rs 200 a kg mixed to produce a mixture costing Rs 300 a kg? As I juggle with algebra: x kg of coffee, y kg of chicory and x + y kg of the mixture, you tell me that "You can work it out in your mind, it is 5 : 3!" When I ask you how, you tell me: (300 - 200) : (360 - 300) or 100 : 60 or 5 : 3 and add, "Bob's your uncle!" That is the same as "Voila!" or "Hey presto!"

That reminds me of my classmate Habibullah who used to say that the letters "q e d" that one writes with a flourish after proving a rider in geometry stand for "quite easily done"! (Of course, the abbreviation actually stands for "quod erat demonstrandum" meaning "which was required to be proved".) "Quite easily done" is the same as "And Bob's your uncle!"

Euphemism is a great breeding ground for expressions like "spending a penny" - for going to the toilet. The phrase goes back to Victorian public toilets, which required users to insert a single penny in order to operate the lock. Historically, only women's public toilets required a penny to lock; the ones for men were free of charge! Of course, there are other expressions for the same thing: "going to the little girl's room", "going to powder the nose" and "going to a man about the dog" and the like.

The reference in "Oh my Gideon!", I had thought, was to the copy of the Bible you see in hotel rooms. In a moment of stress, you may like to exclaim "Oh my God!" but it would be sacrilege, as God has, vide the Third Commandment, made his feelings plain on the subject of taking his name in vain. So one looks for alternatives like "Gosh" and "Golly" but there is hardly any fun in that. We need something more colourful, descriptive and dramatic. We’re all creative people, and language is our playground. "Sainted aunt" is more like it. Or "Oh my giddy aunt!" Which, in course of time, transmogrified into "Oh my Gideon!"

When you hear "Alice has a bun in the oven", it is easy to guess that what is meant is that she is expecting a child. If someone has "a few sandwiches short of a picnic", the suggestion is that he is not too intelligent.

There is one more that I want to write about. Someone who is boorish and loud, and a little too full of himself is described as "a stuffed shirt" or "all mouth and trousers". This windbag is boastful about being the most astonishing person around.

Meanwhile, there’s “all mouth and NO trousers,” referring to someone who cannot deliver what he boastfully promises. Apparently when it originated, the claim referred to sexual prowess!