Put on the Dog is About Dressing Up

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Michelle Walker. I’m calling from Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California.

Well, welcome to the show. How can we help you, Michelle?

Well, I was calling about something my grandmother used to say, and she used to say, putting on the dog.

And it meant, like, getting, like, really dressed up, but maybe, like, just a touch of pretentiousness to it.

Putting on the dog.

So like when she was going out dancing or something like that, she might just dress up with extra special care?

Yes.

Like she put on her like auburn wig and her mink coat and her pearls.

But she’d kind of say it like a little self-deprecating, like, well, I’m really putting on the dog.

Or if she was talking about maybe one of her peers in some stories, she’d say, oh, well, she just really put on the dog.

So it was like fancy, but maybe like trying too hard.

Mm—

Yeah.

Yeah, that’s an interesting expression that’s been around since the mid-1800s, about the time of the American Civil War.

What’s really interesting for me is that it used to just be put on dog, not put on the dog, without the article.

Most of the early uses have it that way.

I often put on dog when I go out for the grand review or that sort of thing.

There are a couple prevailing theories about what this dog is doing in this idiom.

One of them, which I like a lot, and I think most word historians think has a little bit of oomph behind it, even though we can’t prove it, is that after this American Civil War, lapdogs became accustomed.

You know, these tiny, cute things.

So there were a couple kinds of spaniels.

I think one was a Blenheim spaniel and the King Charles spaniels that were known.

I guess we’d call them ladies who lunch today, but the ladies who would go to all the soirees and go out looking fine in their pearls and their best wig and their best gown would have these dogs.

So they would accessorize with the dog.

Accessorize with the beautiful animal, yeah.

Oh my gosh, the dog was part of making them look fancy.

That’s right, yeah.

That’s the best possible explanation that we have.

So yeah, from about the 1860s or so.

Well, thank you so much.

I love that.

That’s really funny.

I actually have a French bulldog, so maybe I’ll carry him around and think I’m putting on the dog.

Just drape him around your neck elegantly.

Yeah, what’s his name?

His name is Pierre, actually.

Oh, even better.

I’m just envisioning him in a little bow tie.

Do you have an auburn wig?

Exactly.

An auburn wig.

Oh, my gosh.

And pearls on the dog.

There you go.

It’s going to be a whole new look.

You’ll have to send us a photo.

Oh, I definitely will.

Thank you so much.

Thanks, Michelle.

Take care now.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Thanks. Bye-bye.

Some people have speculated that the fox furs, where they keep the head somewhat intact and use that as a kind of a wrap or a stole, that that is the source of put-on-dog.

But there’s no more evidence for that either.

Oh, that’s good.

Yeah, the lapdog explanation is probably the best one.

Yeah, that makes sense.

A little Fifi, a little malty poo, something like that.

You add a purse, you add pearls, earrings, the best shoes, and the finest dogs.

And you invest in lint rollers.

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