Fwd: "dog day, n." - Word of the Day from the OED

[Dave Monroe]

"Every dog has his day, and a good dog just might have two days."
--Johnny Copeland

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Subject: "dog day, n." - Word of the Day from the OED
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OED Online Word of the Day
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Your word for today is: dog day, n.

dog day, n.
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈdɒɡ deɪ/,  U.S. /ˈdɔɡ ˌdeɪ/, /ˈdɑɡ ˌdeɪ/
Forms: see dog n.1 and day n.
Etymology: <  dog n.1 + day n., after post-classical Latin caniculares
dies dog days (see canicular adj.), itself after Hellenistic Greek
κυνάδες ἡμέραι. Compare earlier canicular days n at canicular adj. 1.
Compare Middle Dutch hontdage, hontsdage (Dutch hondsdagen), Middle
Low German hundedāge, Middle High German hundische tage, huntlīche
tage, all plural, hundetac, singular (German Hundstage, plural).
 1.
 a.  In pl. The hottest part of the summer, associated in ancient
times with the heliacal rising of the Dog Star in the Mediterranean
area, and formerly considered to be the most unhealthy period of the
year and a time of ill omen. Cf. canicular days n. at canicular adj.
1.
The dog days have been variously reckoned, as depending on either the
Greater Dog Star (Sirius) or the Lesser Dog Star (Procyon), and on
either the heliacal rising or the cosmical rising (which occurs at an
earlier date). The timing of these risings depends on latitude, and
they do not occur at all in most of southern hemisphere; in addition,
owing to the precession of the equinox they now take place later in
the year. As a result very different dates have been assigned for the
dog days, their beginning ranging from 3 July to 15 August, and their
duration varying from 30 to 61 days. In the Calendar of the 1552 Book
of Common Prayer they run from 7 July to 5 September. In current
calendars they are often said to begin on 3 July and end on 11 August
(i.e. the 40 days preceding the cosmical rising of Sirius at the
latitude of Greenwich).

The name arose from the pernicious qualities of the season being
attributed to the ‘influence’ of the Dog Star; but it has long been
popularly associated with the belief that at this season dogs are most
liable to go mad (cf. quot. 1601 for canicular days n. at canicular
adj. 1).
1538  T. Elyot Dict., Canicula..a sterre, wherof canicular or dogge
days be named Dies caniculares.
1564  P. Moore Hope of Health f. lviijv, There be sometimes of the
yeare wherein purgations ought not to bee ministred, as in Somer,
specially the Dogge daies.
1660  T. M. Walker's Hist. Independency IV. 52 For now (it being the
Dog-dayes) the house grew so hot, that diverse members withdrew.
1686  tr.  J. Chardin Trav. Persia 413 The Reverberation of which
[high mountain] so furiously heats the place in the dog-days, that it
scalds again.
1712  E. Cooke Voy. S. Sea 397 Hotter in January, than Italy in the Dog-Days.
1747  tr.  J. Astruc Acad. Lect. Fevers 174 Bilious, hot constitutions
of any ages, are subject to this fever, especially in the dog-days, or
most intense heat of the summer.
1800  J. Vint Conc. Syst. Mod. Geogr. I. 417 The climate of Sky is not
the most genial or benignant. The spring is backward; summer indeed
warm, yet not torrid; but about the dog-days the rains usually begin.
1865 Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc. 13 96 The dog days still bear their old
relation to the rising of the dog star.
1902 Times 28 July 13/6 Last week's conditions were more suggestive of
November than of the Dog days.
1950  W. O. Douglas Of Men & Mountains xv. 193 September frosts would
be on the heels of the dog days of August.
2005  D. Daley–Clarke Lazy Eye 174 We are at the end of Dog Days when
the Dog Star is ascending and they are the hottest days of any year.
 b.  A day in the dog days.
1669  R. Stapylton Trag. Hero & Leander i. 1 Master, this Feast of
Venus and Adenis Is hotter then a dog-Day: how I sweat?
1769  O. Ruffhead Life A. Pope 35 Is it necessary to make a complaint
of this kind consistent, that every day should be a dog-day?
1824 U.S. Literary Gaz. (1825) 1 Sept. 156/1 If any one of them ever
was so foolish as to put pen to paper in a dog-day, he will appreciate
our efforts and our merit.
1887  J. Fiske Let. 6 July (1940) 548 Thermometer there..118 degrees
in the shade, but no sultriness; less uncomfortable than 85 degrees on
a Cambridge dog-day.
1913 Sat. Evening Post 22 Feb. 13/3 It was summer, a regular dog-day
in August; and I was dressed in the clothes the prison had given me.
1952  S. J. Perelman Let. 11 Feb. in Don't tread on Me (1987) 122
Right now (early afternoon) it's like an August dog-day, without any
air-cooled bars to escape to.
2005  M. Fazi in  E. Datlow et al.  Year's Best Fantasy & Horror 377
On a dog-day like that, I must have been the only man in the state to
flee the shade.
 2.  fig. In pl. In early use: an evil time; a period in which
malignant influences prevail. Now (in weakened sense): a period of
inactivity or decline.
1555  J. Philpot Let. in  R. Eden Exam. & Writings J. Philpot (1842)
(modernized text) 283 Neither that any giddy head in these dog-days
might take an ensample by you to dissent from Christ's true church.
1595  G. Chapman Ouids Banquet of Sence sig. E3v, In these dog-dayes
how this contagion smoothers The purest bloods.
1629  N. Carpenter Achitophel i. 10 What then shall wee now expect in
these dogge-dayes of the worlds declining age?
1684  E. Settle State of Eng. in Relation Popery Ep. Ded., We live in
a Kingdom where..we are in that Temperate Region, that (unless now and
then of late in the too sultry Dog-Days of Black-rod, and Messenger
Time) we are only Govern'd by Law.
1835  I. Taylor Spiritual Despotism vii. 306 During the dog-days of
the Romish spiritual despotism.
1862  E. L. Blanchard Harlequin & House that Jack Built iii. 19 A
desperate struggle ensues as in the pieces belonging to the dog-days
of the Minor Drama.
1992 N.Y. Times 12 July iv. 6/5 One possibly beneficial byproduct of
the managerial dog days may be that it will prepare younger people for
the..career-jumping likely to be their lot.
2002 Mojo Feb. 34/3 In the dog-days of The Beatles, one of Paul's
plans for holding it all together had been for the world's most fabled
band to just go out and play.
Compounds
 C1.  General attrib. and in the genitive.
1589  T. Nashe Anat. Absurditie sig. Bii, [They] pretending forsooth
to anatomize abuses,..when as there waste paper beeing wel viewed,
seemes fraught with nought els saue dogge daies effects.
1595  A. Copley Wits Fittes & Fancies 100 A Doctor of physick was
telling one how wholsome it is to breake ones fast all the dog-day
mornings.
1598  Bp. J. Hall Virgidemiarvm iv. i. 10 My double draught may quench
his dog-daies rage.
1613  J. Stephens Cinthia's Revenge v. i. sig. P4, Flye-blowne already
as a carkasse hot Which hath no shelter from the dog-day Sunne.
1615  T Heywood Foure Prentises sig. K, Such as shrinke not To haue
their blouds sod with the dog daies heat.
1688  R. Holme Acad. Armory ii. xvii 432 The Siriasis, or Phransy, or
Dog day Madness: is a distemper from the inflaming of the Brain.
1719  E. Young Busiris ii. 15 Like poysonous Vermin in a Dog-day Sun.
1769  J. Gerrard Poems 41 Dog-day thunders are more kind than you.
1804  J. Macknight Harmony Four Gospels (ed. 3) II. 462 Watered with
torrents from the mountains, and perennial springs when the other
happen to fail through the dog days heat.
1851  N. Hawthorne House Seven Gables viii. 131 She found herself
quite overpowered by the sultry, dog-day heat, as it were, of
benevolence.
1881 Harper's New Monthly Mag. July 229/1 It was a true dog-day
afternoon, the rain having made the air more close and lifeless than
before.
1975  E. Kennedy Things my Mother told Me ii. 23 Besides these
seasonal sales there are George Washington's Birthday sales, inventory
sales, warehouse sales, and dog day sales.
1991  M. C. Gilfillan Moods of Ohio Moons 89 The time of dog days heat
is passed, the annoying insects are thinning.
1996 Chesapeake Bay Feb. 18/3 A typical dog-day summer afternoon.
 C2.  U.S. Designating large annual cicadas of the genus Tibicen,
which emerge during the dog days.
1854  E. Emmons Agric. N.Y. V. 152 Cicada canicularis, Dogday Harvestfly.
a1862  H. D. Thoreau Maine Woods (1864) iii. 236, I heard the dog-day
locust here.
1901  M. C. Dickerson Moths & Butterflies iii. 278 In cicadas, or
‘dog-day harvest-flies’.
1944  R. Matheson Entomol. for Introd. Courses xii. 228 In the North
many different species of cicadas are commonly called harvest flies,
dog-day cicadas or lyremen, probably because their shrill songs are
heard in the hot days of late July August.
2004 U.S. News & World Rep. 19 Apr. 70/3 The ‘dog-day’ cicadas..have
shorter sojourns underground and emerge in smaller numbers.

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