hair of the dog
nounEtymology
Ellipsis of hair of the dog that bit one, a folk remedy for rabies by placing hair from the dog that bites one into the wound. The use of the phrase as a metaphor for a hangover treatment dates at least to the 16ᵗʰ century. The principle of “curing like with like” has existed in various cultures historically; see hair of the dog at Wikipedia for details; the use of the phrase “hair of the dog” for a hangover cure dates to antiquity, an early form being found in the Ugaritic text KTU 1.1114 line 29, where the chief god of the pantheon, i/el, takes some for his health. The usage is in turn a borrowing from Akkadian.A Primer on Ugaritic, p. 121. Cambridge University Press, 2007. →ISBN.
Definitions
An alcoholic drink, particularly when taken the morning after to cure a hangover.
- Near-synonyms: coffin dodger, corpse reviver, pick-me-up, eye-opener; see also Thesaurus:alcoholic beverage
- I'll be right back. I just need a little hair of the dog that bit me.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for hair of the dog. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA