Why do we call hot dog hot dog there is no dog in it?!
Why do we call hot dog hot dog there is no dog in it?
Answers: There are a couple of dodgy etymologies about this word but according to wikipedia (yay) The earliest usage of "hot dog" in clear reference to sausage found by Barry Popik appeared in the 28 September 1893 edition of The Knoxville Journal.[10]
"It was so cool last night that the appearance of overcoats was common, and stoves and grates were again brought into comfortable use. Even the weinerwurst men began preparing to get the "hot dogs" ready for sale Saturday night."
—28 September 1893, Knoxville (TN) Journal, "The [sic] Wore Overcoats," pg. 5
HOWEVER an answer you will not find on the internet comes from a old victorian travel diary I have which seems to suggest that the the actual word comes from the iron "dogs" or grill stands that were used by some to cook the sausages, a word which was taken from "dog irons", "andirons" or "firedogs" which were used to hold burning logs in a fire... cause we wish there was. A hot dog was named after a dachshund, a long breed of dog. Eventually, a cartoonist writing a cartoon about "dachshund sausages" couldn't remember how to spell the name, and he wrote "hot dog" instead. the deffintion came from after the mushed meat came out it repersented a Winner dig you know the small ones that have a long body and really short.
Thus the hot dog was born. cos it look like a dog's (xxx) when he is on heat. Hot cat would sound weird