Potlicker or potlikker

Posted by ESC on April 29, 2004

In Reply to: Potlicker or potlikker posted by Marian on April 29, 2004

: This one's in my Webster's Third New International Dictionary, defined as "a mongrel dog, especially: stray." It came up in conversation this evening when my husband recalled a former co-worker from the early 1980s who occasionally used the word to refer, for instance, to someone he felt had attempted to cheat him in some way. This co-worker happened to be a Morman who rarely used foul language, but he used the word in such a derogatory way that there was no question what he thought of the offending party. I wondered if this was a somewhat more genteel word for the phrase "son of a bitch," which, interestingly, also seems to spring from the canine world.

I've only heard potlicker used to refer to a recipe/dish. I'm not sure if there's more than one kind of potlicker.

Regarding derogatory canine-related terms, we in West Virginia called people "egg-sucking dogs," meaning people who were low-down, couldn't be trusted.