Date: Fri, 20 Sep 1996 16:18:12 -0500

From: Mark Mandel Mark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]DRAGONSYS.COM

Subject: Re: Salty Dog -Reply



Margaret Ronkin ronkinm[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]gusun.acc.georgetown.edu 0920.1447



This and "salt" are common variations of the nickname "old salt",

according to Urdang's and LaRoche's (1980:227) _Picturesque

Expressions: A Thematic Dictionary_. U and L claim that since a

particularly old or experienced sailor is a "sea dog", "the allusion [made

by "salty dog"] is to the salt in the seawater to which a sailor is

constantly exposed".





That's what I thought as the origin of the phrase, but it seems to have

picked up a sexual meaning somewhere along the line (doesn't almost

everything?). There's a blues(?) that goes:

Let me be your salty dog, or I don't wanna be your man at all.

Honey, let me be your salty dog.



Mark A. Mandel : mark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]dragonsys.com

Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 965-5200

320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02160, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com/