Continuing (but also concluding) this week’s theme of BBQ-themed etymological explorations, let’s turn quickly to look at that classic companion of the hamburger on-the-grill, namely, the hot dog.

As you probably know already, it’s that tube-like catch-all collection of quasi-sausage meat served on a long bread bun. Just like the hamburger, the idea of consuming sausage on a bun probably came to the New World via German immigrants in the late 1800s, though, strictly speaking, a “dachshund sausage” was not quite the same thing as a hot dog, but influenced the name, no doubt.

No, instead, a “hot dog” is a distinctly American slang term, and yes, it was so named because the mysteriously packed sausages of the turn-of-the-last-century were thought to contain actual dog meat (jokingly, I hope).

The 1893 world’s fair in Chicago, and the selling of dachshund sausage at ballparks, both helped to popularize the name and the snack concept itself; for more speculation on the hot dog’s history, check out this page (and this one).

But the first usage of the word(s) came in an article in the Sept. 28, 1893 Knoxville Journal (in Tennessee), with the line, “It was so cool last night that the appearance of overcoats was common... Even the weinerwurst men began preparing to get the ‘hot dogs’ ready for sale Saturday night” (I must thank the Oxford English Dictionary for noting it, as always).

A “hot dog,” can also be a “flashy, ostentatiously successful person; a show-off …” as defined by the OED; to “hot dog,” therefore, means to show off, as it were. This bit of college slang first popped up in the University of Michigan’s college paper, the Wrinkle (yes, that was the name), in the title-page of the Oct. 18, 1894 issue, “Two Greeks a ‘hot dog’ freshman sought/The clothes they found, their favor bought …” .

One could also exclaim “hot dog!” as an expression of “delight or strong approval,” as also defined by the OED (“hot diggety dog!” is another way of putting it). The first example of this slang can be found in a list of interjections found in an 1893 article in the Miami University yearbook, the Recensio, (in Oxford, Ohio, of all places), “…‘By Joe!’...‘Hot! Dog!’...‘Great Scot, man!’”

Hot dog! I hope you enjoyed that bit of sausage slang. If you have any word ideas or questions between now and next week, please send them to me at features@dailyuw.com.