Dogging a Door

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Emily. I’m calling from San Diego, so I’m not too far away from you guys.

No, not at all.

Not at all.

Well, welcome to the show, Emily. What’s on your mind?

Thank you.

Well, I had been recently going to a facility where I had to close the doors when I left, and I noticed that there was this phrase on the door that said, to dog the door, you’ll do this, and to undog the door, you’ll do this. And I had never heard the phrase to dog a door before. And I was speaking to one of the owners of the facility and I told him when I left, because nobody else was there, that I had dogged the door. And he laughed at me and he said, oh, that’s an old military term. And I was just wondering the origins of to dog a door or to undog a door.

Undog a door.

Dog as in D-O-G?

Mm—like a pet dog.

Mm—

Yeah.

So you said there was a connection with a military, a Navy perhaps?

Yes, yeah.

Well, at least that’s what the owner told me. That was a term that had originated maybe from the military, but I wasn’t sure.

Yeah, on a seafaring vessel, if you dog the hatches, it means you’re tightening down the handles on the doors that have a gasket around them. So that it makes them watertight. The hatch is in the floor, and you can dog the hatches, which means to secure them. The term dog has been applied to a lot of different things, including a bolt or a handle that’s used to seal a hatch. It sort of fits into something else, like a notch, and it secures something. And I think that the origin is probably that it’s as tenacious as a dog that clamps its jaws around something.

Yeah, that’s what I would say too.

My mom suggested that maybe it was that you leave the door open because it had to do with dogging and undogging the door, leaving the door open or leaving the door closed. And my mom suggested, well, we leave, there’s dog doors that we have to let the dogs go in and out.

Yeah, or maybe you’re waiting for the dog to…

I think they’re much older than dog doors. I mean, we’re talking about at least the 1800s for the nautical sense and 1300s for other kinds of clamps that have to do with fastening in construction that are called dogs.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The dog that I’m most familiar with is that kind of latch that’s in an extension ladder that secures it. You know, you stretch it up and then you secure the rungs with what’s called a dog. So if you dog the doors or dog the hatches, then you’re sealing them shut with a little latch.

Okay, that makes sense.

I have a bone to pick with one of my dictionaries. It calls this verb chiefly historical. And I think it’s, here’s Emily telling us it’s still in current use.

Yeah.

Yeah, it’s actually, it’s a sticker on the door. It’s just to undog the door and to dog the door.

Yeah, it’s definitely something that I guess is still used.

Thanks so much for calling, Emily.

Take care now.

That’s a great one.

Right.

All righty.

Bye-bye.

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