The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

called the dog star, rose with the Sun at this time
of year. Romans believed that the dog star, sonamed
because it was placed at the head of the
constellation Canis Major (meaning “greater dog”),
added its heat to that of the Sun and exerted a
baleful infl uence upon human affairs, making mortals
drowsy and listless and bringing forth droughts
and disease. Changes in the movements of the stars
over the centuries mean that Sirius today rises
some time later in the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
<strong>The</strong> long- standing difference of opinion ignited
once more during the dog days of summer, when the heat
made everybody irritable and argumentative.
dog has his day, every See every dog has his
day.
dog in the manger, a A person who selfi shly prevents
others from enjoying what he or she cannot
enjoy himself or herself. <strong>The</strong> expression comes
from a fable by the Greek writer Aesop (620–560
b.c.) in which a surly dog sits on a pile of hay in a
manger, preventing some cows from eating it,
even though he cannot eat it himself. “ ‘I suppose it
is wrong and selfi sh,’ he said. ‘I suppose I am a dog
in a manger. But I do own that there is a consolation
to me in the assurance that she will never be
the wife of that scoundrel’ ” (Anthony Trollope,
<strong>The</strong> Last Chronicle of Barset, 1867).
dog in the nighttime, the A seemingly innocuous
event that, by not happening, provides a vital clue
in the solution of a crime or other mystery. <strong>The</strong>
allusion is to the short story “Silver Blaze” (1892)
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in which the detective
sherlock holmes solves the crime by reasoning
that a dog did not bark when a race horse was stolen
from some stables because it knew the person
stealing the horse: “ ‘Is there any point to which
you would wish to draw my attention?’ ‘To the
curious incident of the dog in the night- time.’
‘<strong>The</strong> dog did nothing in the night- time.’ ‘That was
the curious incident,’ remarked Sherlock Holmes.”
<strong>The</strong> phrase subsequently provided the title of a
2003 novel by Mark Haddon, <strong>The</strong> Curious Incident
of the Dog in the Night- Time. <strong>The</strong> nonappearance of the
professor may prove to be the dog in the nighttime that
solves this case.
dog must be bad indeed that is not worth a bone,
the See laborer is worthy of his hire, the.
dog returneth to his vomit, a Fools and criminals
tend to be drawn irresistibly back to their follies
or crimes. This proverb is biblical in origin, appearing
in Proverbs 26:11, “As a dog returneth to his
vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly,” and in 2
Peter 2:22. In modern usage the proverb is usually
quoted with reference to criminals who cannot
resist returning to the scene of their crimes. <strong>The</strong>
gang came back to the scene of the murder that very evening,
drawn like dogs to their vomit.
dogs of war Mercenary soldiers. <strong>The</strong> phrase
appears in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
(1599): “Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war”
and became doubly familiar to a more modern
audience through the title of Frederick Forsyth’s
1974 thriller <strong>The</strong> Dogs of War, which recounted
the involvement of a group of mercenaries in a coup
in central Africa. <strong>The</strong> term is occasionally employed
more widely, as in its original Shakespearean context,
to describe the horrors of war generally. After
leaving the army he contemplated taking up a career as
one of the dogs of war who drift from continent to continent
in search of money and adventure.
dolce vita, la See la dolce vita.
dolce vita, la
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