Since Hector was a Pup

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Good morning. This is Bob Schmidt. I’m calling from Carefree, Arizona.

Carefree, Arizona? Is this a description or a city?

That’s the name of the town.

Oh, okay. Nice.

2,500 people just north of Scottsdale.

Sounds pretty nice, Bob.

What’s on your mind?

I was listening to your show a couple weeks ago, driving from central Wisconsin to Minneapolis, and I thought about something my father always used to say.

It was a while back. He’d be 101 today.

But he would use the term Hector’s pup, and he would use it in kind of an exclamatory or inflammatory or imperative way.

It would be used like Hector’s pup. I don’t know.

Hector’s pup beats me.

Hector’s pup, do you think they were rich?

It would be a filler, but it would be something where he’s unhappy with the situation or wants to make a point.

Hector’s pup.

And did he avoid cursing by any chance?

He seldom, if ever, cursed.

Because usually the phrase I’ve heard is since Hector was a pup, which means a long, long time ago.

I’ve known Grant since Hector was a pup since a long time ago.

The way he’s using it is much more rare.

And it sounds like a euphemism for heck in that sense, doesn’t it?

A little bit.

It’s a double euphemism, heck for hell.

Yeah.

Hector for heck and heck for hell.

And Hector’s pup.

There is a variation of since Hector was a pup, which is since heck was a pup, H-E-C or H-E-C-K.

And we know who Hector was, though, don’t we?

Sure, yeah, from the Iliad.

Yes.

And that phrase, since Hector was a pup, goes back to the early 1900s when people were more familiar with those kinds of things.

Although we don’t really know which Hector is referenced in that phrase, since Hector was a pup, or Hector’s pup, for that matter.

You know, I don’t know that the demographics play a role in this at all.

He was raised in a little town outside of northwest side of Milwaukee called Richfield.

And it was populated by basically his family, and they settled it in the late 1800s.

So he didn’t speak English until he went to school.

They would always speak an old German dialect, because as people would come over from the old country, they would just, you know, everyone just sort of spoke a dialect that they kind of were dead for 100 years.

And so I don’t know whether that plays a role in it or not.

It doesn’t sound like it, but that’s the way he would use it.

I never heard him say it since Hector was a pup.

I mean, it would always be Hector’s pup.

Interesting.

Yeah, that’s new on me.

Just as an interjection like that, I didn’t know that one.

That’s pretty cool, though, Bob.

It was his 100th birthday today or his 101st today?

101st.

No, actually, my mother, that’s when we were coming back from central Wisconsin for.

My mother just turned 100 on the 20th of February.

And I just, you know, he was a year older, so he’d be 101 if you were a 101.

Oh, nice.

Because, again, as Martha said, the earliest uses we know from, I have one from 1903.

Here. So that’s a little over 100 years. It’s pretty cool that his life corresponds to what we know about the printed uses of that term.

But he probably learned it in English. I don’t think that there’s a Germanic version of this.

I’m pretty sure there isn’t. I’m not aware of one.

So there’s a little bit more about the expression.

Bob, hope that helps. Great.

Thanks for sharing, Bob. Okay. Well, thanks for the call. Take care. Okay. Bye-bye. Yep.

Bye-bye. Well, we’d love to hear your stories and questions about language 877-929-9673.

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