Etceteras (‘The Etceteras’ being a hoped-for Oxford equivalent of the Cambridge Footlights).
does a bear shit in the woods/a dog have fleas/a wooden horse have a hickory dick? See IS THE POPE.
does he take sugar? A principal failing of people when dealing with the physically disabled is encapsulated in the title of the BBC Radio series Does He Take Sugar? This phrase, pinpointed originally by social workers in the title of a booklet, ‘Does he take sugar in his tea?’, was used from the programme’s inception in 1978. It represents the unthinking attitude that leads people to talk to the companions or relatives of those with physical disabilities rather than directly to the people themselves. From ‘Guide to the Representation of People With Disabilities in Programmes’ (compiled by Geoffrey Prout, BBC, 1990): ‘For the record, [the title] has nothing to do with diabetes. It refers to the tendency of able-bodied people to speak over the heads of those with a disability and assume that they are brain-dead. In fact the vast majority of people, no matter what their disability, are perfectly able and willing to speak for themselves.’
does Muhammad Ali own a mirror? See IS THE POPE.
does my bum look big in this? See SUITS YOU, SIR.
doesn’t it make you want to spit! An Arthur Askey catchphrase from the BBC radio show Band Waggon (1938–39) and subsequently. Askey commented (1979) that he was rapped over the knuckles for introducing this ‘unpleasant expression’: ‘[Sir John] Reith [the BBC Director-General] thought it a bit vulgar but I was in the driving seat. The show was so popular, he couldn’t fire me. I suppose I said it all the more!’
(he) doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground One of numerous ‘doesn’t know’ phrases designed to describe another person’s ignorance or stupidity. Mostly American, dating perhaps from the early 1900s and mostly featuring the word arse/ass. The format ‘Doesn’t know…from a hole in the ground’ is used in the film Mr Smith Goes to Washington (US 1939). (He) doesn’t know whether to shit or light a fire is about a person who can’t make up his mind, and apparently this refers to soldiers who, at the end of a long day’s march can’t decide whether to warm up first, or…Surprisingly, Eric Partridge (with his army background) does not appear to know this expression. However, he did include (to describe ignorance rather than indecision): ‘He doesn’t know whether to shit or go blind/whether he wants a shit or a haircut/whether to scratch his watch or wind his ass’, some of which are American in origin. A similar British expression is (he) doesn’t know pussy from a bull’s foot – referring to someone who doesn’t know what he is talking about or is ignorant. Partridge/Slang has doesn’t know a great A from a bull’s foot and ‘does not know A from a battledore/windmill/the gableend’ (these last two versions known since 1401). There is also ‘doesn’t know B from a bull’s foot’ (1401), ‘battledor’ (1565) and ‘broomstick’ (undated). So we are definitely talking about the letter ‘A’ rather than hay. All this means is that somebody cannot distinguish between the letter in a child’s alphabet book and the object in question.
doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun (or enjoying yourself)? Nowadays, an expression more often used ironically when work is hard, boredom rife or there is some other reason for not using the expression straightforwardly. Even in Act 2 of W. S. Gilbert’s The Mikado (1885), it is used ironically. Yum-Yum is to marry Nanki-Poo, but her joy is somewhat tempered by the thought that he is to be beheaded at the end of the month. Nanki-Poo tries to cheer her up by saying that they should call each hour a day, each day a year – ‘At that rate we’ve about thirty years of married happiness before us!’ Yum-Yum (‘still sobbing’) says: ‘Yes. How time flies when one is thoroughly enjoying oneself.’ From The Scotsman (21 November 1991): ‘Can it really be a year since [Margaret Thatcher] became politically semi-detached…Doesn’t time fly when you’re having more fun than you’ve been allowed for a decade and more.’ Another laconic use of the phrase, from The Times (30 0ctober 1985): ‘I go home and look for the invoice. Find it. It was not three months ago but ten months. Doesn’t time fly when your car is falling to bits?’ Of course, ‘Doesn’t time fly?’, on its own, is a version of the ancient tempus fugit [time flies], and the original ‘doesn’t time fly when…’ is an old thought. In Shakespeare’s Othello, II.iii.369 (1604), Iago says: ‘Pleasure, and action, make the hours seem short.’
does she…or doesn’t she? This innuendo-laden phrase began life selling Clairol hair dye in 1955. The brainchild of Shirley Polykoff (who entitled her advertising memoirs Does She…or Doesn’t She? in 1975), the question first arose at a party when a girl arrived with flaming red hair. Polykoff involuntarily uttered the line to her husband, George. As she tells it, however, her mother-in-law takes some of the credit for planting the words in her mind some twenty years previously. George told Shirley of his mother’s first reaction on meeting her: ‘She says you paint your hair. Well, do you?’ When Ms Polykoff submitted the slogan at the Foote Cone & Belding agency in New York (together with two ideas she wished to have rejected), she suggested it be followed by the phrase ‘Only her mother knows for sure!’ or ‘So natural, only her mother knows for sure’. She felt she might have to change ‘mother’ to ‘hairdresser’ so as not to offend beauty salons, and only her hairdresser knows for sure was eventually chosen. It was felt, however, that the double meaning in the main slogan would cause the line to be rejected. Indeed, Life Magazine would not take the ad. But subsequent research at Life failed to turn up a single female staff member who admitted detecting any innuendo and the phrases were locked into the form they kept for the next 18 years. ‘J’, author of The Sensuous Woman (1969), did find a double meaning, as shown by this comment: ‘Our world has changed. It’s no longer a question of “Does she or doesn’t she?” We all know she wants to, is about to, or does.’ A New York graffito, quoted in 1974, stated: ‘Only his hairdresser knows for sure.’
does your mother know you’re out? Put-down addressed to a stupid or presumptuous young person, implying that he or she should not be around without parental supervision. Benham (1948) notes that it: ‘Occurs in verses by Gerald Griffin (author of “The Collegians”) about 1827. It is stated by Griffin’s biographer that the saying was then “a cant phrase in the Metropolis.” It occurs also in a poem in “The Mirror,” 28 April, 1838.’ A hugely popular and enduring catchphrase thereafter. Perhaps more recently a chat-up line addressed to a seemingly under-age girl.
do frogs have watertight assholes? See IS THE POPE.
dog See AGE BEFORE; AS LAZY AS; EVERY.
(the) dog beneath the skin The Dog Beneath the Skin was the title of a play (1935) by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood. According to Humphrey Carpenter’s biography of Auden (1981), the title was suggested by Rupert Doone and probable alludes to T. S. Eliot, ‘Whispers of Immortality’ (1920): ‘Webster was much possessed by death / And saw the skull beneath the skin; / And breastless creatures under ground / Leaned backwards with a lipless grin.’ Hence, also, The Skull Beneath the Skin, title of a crime novel (1982) by P. D. James.
(a) dog collar Name applied to the distinctive white collar worn (as though back to front) by a clergyman – a clerical collar. Known as such by 1860s in the UK. Compare putting on the dog, which means putting on airs, fine clothes, and so on. This appears to be an American expression dating from the 1870s – perhaps among college students (especially at Yale) who had to wear stiff, high collars (jokily also known as dog-collars) on formal occasions. Sometimes the phrase is ‘to put on dog’, without the definite article.
dog days Nothing to do with dogs
