By Paula LaRocque, KERA 90.1 Commentator
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-524812.mp3
Dallas, TX –
As a child, I thought the expression "dog days" had to do with dogs. To me, dog days were when dogs lolled about listlessly - or, worse, went mad with rabies. I'd also heard that every dog has its day and thought maybe dog days were some of them.
The dog in "dog days" is not a dog at all, however, but a star. It's Sirius, the Dog Star. During July and August, Sirius rises and sets with the sun. The ancients thought the combined heat of the sun and this bright star caused the sweltering weather. So the Dog Star, not Fido, is the dog in that old expression.
The word "day" is itself linked to heat. It derives from an ancient Sanskrit word that meant "to burn." You might think the essence of day would be closer to light than to heat, but the word's early ancestor came from a place where daylight was synonymous with a fiery sun. Eventually, the roots of our word day passed from Sanskrit to Germanic, to Old English, and to the Middle English dai, later developing its current spelling of day.
It's no surprise that day, which defines most of our waking hours, is one of our most constant metaphors. Salad days and halcyon days are two more old but common "day" expressions. Salad days refers to when we were "green" when we were young and innocent. Shakespeare writes: "My salad days, when I was green in judgment."
Our figurative "halcyon days" were once real enough to be on the ancient calendar. The halcyon days occurred around the winter solstice and represented a period of peace and tranquility. Halcyon came from Latin and Greek words that meant "kingfisher," and the legend of the halcyon was that it could still the wind and calm the seas. It supposedly sat on its nest in the sea during the halcyon days, and by quieting the wind, protected the nest from waves. Today, "halcyon days" refers to any idyllic period of peace and calm.
There seems no end to "day" expressions. We have Day One and the Day of Judgment and the Day of Atonement. We have all the livelong day, forever and a day, and from this day forward. We have mayday, payday, heyday, rainy day, doom's day, an apple a day, and the day of infamy. We have red-letter days and dead-letter days. We have our day in court, where we win the day or call it a day. We have a cold day in Hell. We have days of auld lang syne, days of grace, and days of wine and roses. We rue the day, and remember that Rome wasn't built in a day. And we have the overused expression "at the end of the day."
So here we are, deep in dog day. Or wash day. Or bad hair day. Whatever! Tomorrow is another day. And on a clear day, we can see forever. Happy days are here again. Any day now. So go ahead: Make my day.
Carpe diem!
Paula LaRocque is a former editor and writing coach for the Dallas Morning News and the author of The Book on Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Well.
If you have opinions or rebuttals about this commentary, call (214) 740-9338 or email us.
KERA recently increased the bit rate of our on-demand audio files to podcast-standard 64 Kbps. Read more and tell us what you think.