Date:    Thu, 26 Feb 1998 12:08:42 -0500
<br>From:    Gregory {Greg} Downing  downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IS2.NYU.EDU 
<br>Subject: Re: RE "Till the last dog dies"
<br>
<br>At 08:34 AM 2/26/98 -0800, several successive people wrote:
<br>   Peanuts strips . . .  "Boy, that kid will stick around until the last dog
<br>   is hung."
<br>  
<br>  "until the last dog is hung" must be considerably older than Peanuts.  I
<br>  remember my father using the phrase (late 40s in Bellingham, WA).
<br>  
<br> Yes, indeed. My 78-year old mother tells me this expression was around in
<br> the 1920s (Toronto, Ontario) and she remembers it vividly as 'til the last
<br> dog is dead and the rope is put away.'
<br> 
<br>
<br>I've been wondering about this locution in spare moments, and am away from
<br>my dictionaries today.... I don't believe anyone addressed the following
<br>questions on this thread yet (he wrote, crossing his fingers):
<br>
<br>(1) What kind of activity (if jocular) does this actually refer to? When do
<br>people hang dogs? Or is it just a joke-scenario that never happens? If so,
<br>what's the point of the joke? It certainly adds an unintended new overtone
<br>to "hang-dog"....
<br>
<br>(2) Isn't the past participle of hang "hung" in the phsyical sense of the
<br>verb, and "hanged" in the sense of executing by rope? Or is that some just
<br>normativism that I just happen to have seen arguments for a number of times
<br>over the years? But nobody has mentioned any usage of "till the last dog is
<br>hanged"....
<br>
<br>Confusedly,
<br>
<br>Gregory {Greg} Downing, at greg.downing[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]nyu.edu or downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]is2.nyu.edu
<br>