"There's a brand new dance based on an old phrase."
"It's called the Fat Dog and it will amaze."
"You've heard this expression your entire life."
"It's not made up!"
"It's not made up!"
Definition:
"Fat Dog" is a common expression used in North America for many years before the present day. The meaning of the expression can be best conveyed as encouraging someone to "hang out and relax, like a Fat Dog."
History:
The expression "Fat Dog" has been popularly used in this context since at least 1968. It was definitely not just made up.
President Richard Nixon first popularized the expression during this campaign for the nomination of the Republican Party for President in the 1968 Presidential Election, when he told a reporter for the New York Times that he was simply "Fat Doggin' it" during a day where no campaign events were scheduled and the candidate remained within his hotel room in Bismarck, North Dakota. The origins of the phrase itself, however, date back much further than that, with the first recorded use of the phrase in print being recorded in Charles Dickens' 1852-1853 novel Bleak House, where the phrase is used by the character Harold Skimpole.
A 1984 thesis successfully defended by a student at the Yale Graduate School of English, however, makes the case that the phrase's history can be traced back further still, specifically to John Wycliffe's 14th Century vernacular English translation of the Bible.