What is the origin of the expression "Hair of the dog?"?

Answer 1

"Hair of the dog" is part of a longer expression "the hair of the dog that bit you". This goes back to the old belief that the hair of a dog that bites someone could be used as an antidote against the bad effects of the bite. By extension, another drink or two after a drinking binge would be the cure for a hangover.

Answer 2

The 'hair of the dog' is part of a longer expression - 'the hair of the dog that bit you'. This goes back to the old belief that the hair of a dog that bites someone could be used as an antidote against the bad effects of the bite. By extension, another drink or two after a drinking binge would be the cure for a hangover.

Answer 3

Hair Of The Dog That Bit You Origin

Answer 4

Here is an entire article just on that topic. The site listed in the sources is pretty good for other phrases and words. Enjoy.


hair of the dog (that bit you)

DK wrote:

One recent morning after the night before, friends and I were musing about the origins of the saying hair of the dog that bit me. Of all the possible cures for a hangover, why a hair? Moreover, why a dog's hair? How does Fido figure in on our sorry state, and how on earth could one of his hairs make us feel any better?

My dad used to tell my sisters and me this story about his childhood growing up in East New York, Brooklyn. Seems there was this notoriously mean junkyard dog (is there any other kind?) who made the mistake--once--of biting my father, 10 years old at the time, on the leg. The dog let go pretty quick when my dad bit it back, right on its tail, so hard he broke it. Now, he'd be the first to admit that this wasn't the smartest thing to do, but you could also say that this is what happens when we take our proverbs a little too literally, DK.

In its current usage, the phrase hair of the dog that bit you (or its shortened form, hair of the dog) is an allusion to the practice of drinking some of whatever it was that put you in that state in the first place, as an antidote to its ill effects. This metaphorical usage has been around at least since 1546, when it appeared in Heywood's Proverbs, the first book to be printed of English colloquial sayings: "What how fellow, thou knave, I pray thee let me and my fellow have a haire of the dog that bit us last night. And bitten were we bothe to the braine aright."

The "dog" in question doesn't necessarily need to be liquor, either, as illustrated by this quote from The Detroit Free Press in 1888:

TRAVIS: 'Hello, De Smith! You're looking better than expected.
I understood that you were completely crushed by that love
affair. How did you recover?'
DE SMITH: 'Hair of the dog that bit me. Fell in love with another girl.'

There is in fact a literal meaning to this phrase, we just have to dig a bit further into its past, when a common remedy for a dog bite was to apply a hair from the biter to the wound on the bitee. This belief in turn stems directly from the even older belief that "like diseases are cured by like remedies," in Western medical tradition first formulated by Hippocrates, the father of medicine. The dictum "similia similibus curantur" (Latin for 'likes are cured by likes') is the basis of the homeopathic system of medicine, developed in the late eighteenth century by Samuel Hahnemann. The homeopathic remedy for hangovers is a dose of the apt-sounding nux vomica (lit. 'vomiting nut'), the poisonous seed of a tree containing strychnine.

All this research has given me such a headache, I've decided to apply a "similia" remedy of my own--I'm going out for a drink.

Helen

Answer 5

Hair of the dog
The phrase "Hair of the Dog" is used to refer to a drug consumed with the intent of lessening or postponing the effects of withdrawal from that drug. For example, it is frequently used to refer to alcoholic beverages consumed with the intent of lessening the effects of a hangover. It is a shortened form of the phrase "The Hair of the Dog That Bit You". The phrase is reported to come from the belief that consuming a concoction involving the hair of the dog would prevent becoming afflicted with the diseases such as rabies that the dog may carry. It is possible the phrase arose as a metaphor for that idea and never had a basis in practice.
Homeopathic medicine is largely based on this idea. A formula for a homeopathic dog allergy medicine might contain dog hair, though through dilution there may easily be none remaining in the completed medicine. Vaccination can be seen as a similar idea in that it uses deactivated or less-dangerous but similar infectious agents to provide an immunity to a disease without having to expose the patient to the dangerous infectious agent itself.

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"Hair of the Dog" is also the name of a song and an album by rock band Nazareth.

Answer 6

The phrase "hair of the dog that bit you" refers to the belief that a small portion of something harmful can be used as an antidote to the effects of that thing. It typically refers to someone who drinks alcohol as a hangover treatment.

For answers to all sorts of phrases like this, I would highly recommend that you read "White Elephants and Red Herrings" by Albert Jack. Not only are the origins of all sorts of odd expressions like this explained, but the book is quite amusing. May God bless and keep you.

Answer 7

The Romans and many ancient peoples before them believed in curses and superstitions. They would bind the hairs of a dog that had bitten someone to that very person's wound to make it heal better EVEN of the dog was rabid. The treatment was recommended for centuries by serious medical books and just about the only change until medieval times was that the burnt hair of the dog that bit you was prescribed.

Answer 8

Take a Hair of the Dog that Bit You.

After a debauch, take a little wine the next day. Take a cool draught of ale in the morning, after a night’s excess. The advice was given literally in ancient times, “If a dog bites you, put a hair of the dog into the wound,” on the homœopathic principle of “Similia similibus curantur” (like cures like).

Answer 9

They used to be printed on vellum, a form of parchment made from fine lamb's skin. It was an expensive and very durable material, reflecting the formal nature of the diploma. Although calf skin is the traditional material, sheep were commonly used as well - especially in England. Thus, many Oxford diplomas actually were printed on sheep skin. A few universities still observe the practice; most have changed to cloth or paper diplomas due to cost concerns or student grousing about using animal products.

Answer 10

It's self-explanetary but for you- It's a taste of the hair of the dog that bit you. Another drink of the drink that got you drunk.