Hair of the Dog

Posted by ESC on March 18, 2004

In Reply to: Hair of the Dog posted by Jeff Taplin on March 18, 2004

: I'm surprised this phrase isn't in the database (or maybe I missed it?). Does anyone know where this is from? Cheers.

It's in the archives:

HAIR OF THE DOG THAT BIT YOU - "A deliberate second experience (usually alcoholic) with something that was a bad first experience. It is ancient folk wisdom that like cures like, so ancient that the idea was expressed in Latin: Similia similibus curantur. A specific remedy for a dog bite was hair from the dog that bit you; the hair (often burned first) was applied to the wound." From The Dictionary of Cliches by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985).