Perhaps with an eye towards ballpark munchies and the upcoming grilling season, someone asked Yahoo! how hot dogs got their name. They directed the questioner over to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council which has come up with a (semi) definitive answer, since no one really seems to know the exact origin. One thing is clear: it's an American name, even if the sausages themselves were German.
Apparently, the name originated in the 1800s, when a large number of German immigrants began to move to the US. With them, they brought lots of sausages, but they also brought long, thin, dachshund dogs. The similarity in shape between the two is what probably prompted someone to dub the sausages "hot dogs" and the name stuck. No one person can be attributed to this, but the name was so popular that for many years, when someone said they wanted a "dog," they were inevitably referring to the frankfurter and not to a puppy.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-19-2006 @ 11:24AM
Liz said...
Speaking of hot dogs, Joey Chestnut broke the US record yesterday by eating 50 hot dogs and buns at the Vegas Nathan's Qualifier! This puts him in real contention for taking the mustard belt on July 4th.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=2450250
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5-19-2006 @ 12:10PM
Patrick Bennett said...
I'm pretty sure your account is only partially correct.
From what I hear the name comes from Coney Island, NY. Here the name "dog" was used for sausages as you mention, but that was it.
The way the "hot" was added happened because the food booth barkers trying to get people to buy their "dogs" were yelling "get your dogs here! Hot dogs! Hot off the grill.." etc.
So, the "hot" was added in reference to the freshness of the "dogs" being sold by the barkers. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
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