“热狗”一词是怎么来的？-英语点津

“热狗”这个名称十分古怪，它是由英语hot dog直译而来，但是你知道hot dog一词是怎么来的吗？

据传它来源于一张漫画上的讹写。1901年时，细长流线型的香肠在美国仍是一种新奇的食物，有的人叫它“达克斯猎狗肠”。达克斯猎狗是一种长体短腿棕毛狗，由于香肠的形状颇似这个品种的狗而得名。当时有人制作达克斯猎狗面包推销到纽约的棒球赛场中，成了风行一时的食品。在运动场内，随处可见小贩们在看台上叫卖：“快来买热的达克斯猎狗肠！”

“热狗”一词是怎么来的？

有一次《纽约新闻报》的漫画家塔德·多尔根在看台上看见那种狗型的香肠，听到小贩们的叫卖声后灵感顿生，即兴画了一幅漫画：一个小圆面包里夹一节香肠，上边抹了一些芥末。多尔根回到办公室，把漫画润饰了一下，但写“快来买热的达克斯猎狗肠”时不知为何突然想不起来如何拼写dachshund，只好写个狗字，结果漫画中小贩的喊声就被写成了“快来买热狗”。

有趣的是，这一讹写居然很受欢迎，不仅立刻站住了脚，而且还把其它叫法都送进了历史博物馆。可是人们再也没能找到那幅讹写为“热狗”的漫画，因此这个故事的真伪也就无从证实了。

The origin of hot dogs actually dates back to over five hundred years in the past. It is believed that hotdogs were made in Germany first and it was definitely not named hotdog back then! The sausage was actually named by a butcher in Frankfurt, Germany as "dachshund sausage", after his pet dachshund. Perhaps the shape of the dachshund, which is a small dog with a long and slender body, caused the butcher to see the resemblance between his sausages and his dog. Thus the name "dachshund sausage" came to existence. How the name changed from dachshund sausage to hotdog is another, highly controversial story.

Douglas B. Smith mentioned in his book that the credit of the name should go to the cartoonist T.A. Dorgan of the "New York Journal". According to the story that Smith wrote in his book "Ever Wonder Why", T.A. Dorgan was enjoying a baseball match back in 1901, when he heard vendors yelling to sell their "hot dachshund sausages". The situation drew the attention of Dorgan and being a cartoonist by profession, he made a cartoon sketch of the whole situation but being unsure about the actual spelling of the term "dachshund", he gave it the name of "hotdog". This is the most popular theory about the origin of the name hotdog.

It is to be noted that the above theory regarding the origin of the hotdog is not proven to be the absolute. Also, the various details may vary widely with each website or book that you would come across. For example, the year is found to be 1906 in place of 1901 in some cases, while some claim that it was not a baseball match but a polo game. Others claim that it was neither a baseball match, nor was it a polo game; rather it was a six-day bicycle race. Which of these facts are true or if all of them are false, is something that is hard to tell accurately now, but what it does suggest is that the story is doubtful. There are other theories also, which stem from the fact that the term hotdog was in use even before TAD or Dorgan used it to depict his cartoon.