Mary from Flagler Beach, Florida, says when she lived on St. Croix, it was common to describe overindulging in a plentiful meal by saying that everyone ate and drank like knockin’ dog. This Caribbean English expression referring to “abundance” and “excess” goes back to the 1870s. In other parts of the Caribbean, knocking dog sometimes refers to something available in such abundance that it’s become inexpensive. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Knockin’ Dog in the Caribbean”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Mary from Flagler Beach, Florida.
Welcome to the show.
Well, for many years we lived in St. Croix in the United States, Virgin Islands.
And the cruisers, Virgin Islanders, had this funny saying when they have too much to eat or drink.
Like you would say, hey Joe, how was your Thanksgiving?
He’d say, girl, we ate and drank like knocking dog.
And I never knew what that meant.
And I was wondering if you had any clue.
Oh, I love this question.
I lived on St. Croix for six months.
Knock and dog.
It meant that you, I think you ate so much you were just falling over like, I don’t know.
Yeah, that’s right.
Yeah.
It’s about abundance.
And nobody’s quite sure why it means abundance, but it goes back to the 1870s.
1870s.
Yeah.
There’s a report in a Bahamian newspaper talking about all of the fruit from Jamaica that’s arriving in New York and how much the New Yorkers love it.
And it uses the expressions, says all of the fruit which we have in this country to knock dog, as the native saying goes.
That’s amazing.
Yeah.
Sometimes it’s used in other places like Trinidad and Tobago to mean very cheap or a low rate of pay.
But you’ll also find it mentioned in Guyana as well.
And it probably pops up in other Caribbean islands, too.
So one example sentence in the dictionary of Trinidad and Tobago English is, she was a very ostentatious woman and she was not prepared to hang up any curtains that were knocking dog and cat in the village.
Oh my goodness, I love it.
That means cheap.
So a lot of times it’s just something that’s in excess or it’s just like, there’s so much of it that it’s like almost worthless.
No fooling. Oh, that’s great.
Yeah.
Great.
It’s a strange thing, isn’t it?
It’s very strange.
Language is so strange.
Of course, in the Caribbean, it’s English, but they have French influence and Dutch influence and people that have settled there.
In fact, the U.S. Virgin Islands, there’s a lot of Danish influence.
Yeah, although it’s not as much as there might be for as long as the Danes held St. Croix.
Yeah, the Danes bought it in 1900, I think.
Yeah, well, I remember when I was in St. Croix, there was a Danish couple that decided to retire there thinking that there would still be some Danish spoken.
They did not last very long because there was no Danish spoken.
No, no.
That’s funny.
Oh, well.
Mary, I’ve got to say thank you for reminding me of the lovely time I had in St. Croix, which, by the way, is still a lovely place to go.
It is.
I’d love to get back again someday.
We haven’t been in quite a while.
Me too.
And, Mary, we will talk to you again sometime soon.
Thank you very much.
Okay.
Thank you for answering that question.
Bye, Mary.
Bye-bye.
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