Two folk etymologies in less than an hour means I have to comment. Especially since they both involve dogs.
Here’s the truth about the origin of most of our oft-repeated phrases: We don’t know. Because idioms are generally spoken long before they’re written down, at least in the pre-internet era, terms get mutated and decontextualized. More recent idioms are a bit easier to trace, and some have literally started on the internet, but those which have around longer… not so much.
This morning’s viewings were the origins of “hush puppy” and “raining cats and dogs”, both of which have the official origin of: “Honestly, we don’t know.” but nonetheless come with people insisting that they are absolutely confident that this one origin is the absolute correct one.
“Raining cats and dogs”: The proffered “fun fact” (so-marked, though not fun) was that this comes from storms so bad they left drowned stray animals in the street. This origin does have some plausibility as the reason for the *popularity*; the first use of the term in print, as is, is from Jonathan Swift, and did in fact refer to dead strays after a heavy rain. However, it was clearly a tweak on an earlier term that had nothing to do with that. So, it’s not the origin, but it could be why it’s so widespread. The earliest appearance in print of anything about animals raining was decades earlier, talking about a roof strong enough to support cats and dogs raining from the sky, but it’s unclear why they would be doing so. This led to a common folk etymology that rain causes animals to flee from the thatched rafters of their houses, as if people had so many pets in their homes like, ever, that it would cause that to seem like rain. (This folk etymology would suggest that the phrase ought to be the more euphonic “raining rats”, which 🤷🤷🤷 I’ve never heard.)
“Hush puppy”: The proffered fact (not fun) is that this comes from the slave era, when people escaping enslavement would leave these cornmeal balls behind to distract the barking dogs that were chasing them down. There is plenty to discredit this theory, including arguments about historical evidence as well as the use of “dogs” to mean a lot of things in that era, not just canines. “Hush puppy” was given to several different bar foods given to troublemaking rogues, that is, hound dogs. So is the slavery explanation possible? Sure, we don’t have anything definitive to prove it wrong. But it’s not particularly plausible, either.
At least these examples aren’t as egregious as the Twelve Days are All Birds theory, which started with someone admitting they were completely riffing off “Hey, if they’re all birds, what birds would they be?” which, in a few short years and entirely on the internet, became “Here’s the ONE TRUE ORIGIN.”
Etymology is difficult and often boring. Folk etymology is easy and usually fun. I know I’m being a buzzkill for some people, but it comes with the territory.
Additional comment: I’ll also add: There are some idioms that really *do* refer to the slave era. There seems to be zero controversy that being “sold down the river” refers to an enslaved person being resold to a plantation farther south (down the Ohio/Mississippi) for harder, crueler labor. “Cake walk” and “piece of cake” are generally seen as being tied to slave masters forcing their enslaved people to entertain them with dance competitions. And “grandfathering” refers to post-war legislation that ducked around emancipation policies by granting certain rights, especially voting rights, if someone’s grandfather (i.e., a white person) also had them.
So we do have widely accepted etymologies for SOME words and phrases. Just not all of them.