hair of the dog
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.79 in modern English
23
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
2
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Near-synonyms: coffin dodger, corpse reviver, pick-me-up, eye-opener; see also Thesaurus:alcoholic beverage"
- "I'll be right back. I just need a little hair of the dog that bit me."
- "But with the morning cool repentance came. I felt, in the keenest manner, the violence and absurdity of my conduct, and was obliged to confess that wine and passion had lowered my intellects. . . . I descended to the breakfast hall, like a criminal to receive sentence. . . . [H]e poured out a large bumper of brandy, exhorting me to swallow "a hair of the dog that had bit me.""
- "Ha ha! Put a good face upon it, and drink again. Another hair of the dog that bit you, captain!"
- "The good times are killing me / Enough hair of the dog to make myself an entire rug"
Etymology
Ellipsis of hair of the dog that bit one, a folk remedy for rabies by placing hair from the dog that bites one into the wound. The use of the phrase as a metaphor for a hangover treatment dates at least to the 16ᵗʰ century. The principle of “curing like with like” has existed in various cultures historically; see hair of the dog at Wikipedia for details; the use of the phrase “hair of the dog” for a hangover cure dates to antiquity, an early form being found in the Ugaritic text KTU 1.1114 line 29, where the chief god of the pantheon, i/el, takes some for his health. The usage is in turn a borrowing from Akkadian.A Primer on Ugaritic, p. 121. Cambridge University Press, 2007. →ISBN.