where did the saying man best friend come from
Frederick the Great of Prussia
title: Man's best friend (phrase) text: Man's best friend (phrase) "Man's best friend" is a common phrase about domestic dogs, referring to their millennia-long history of close relations, loyalty, and companionship with humans. The first recorded use of a related phrase is by Frederick the Great of Prussia. It was likely popularized by its use in a poem by Ogden Nash and has since become a common colloquialism. Before the evolution of wolf into dog, it is posited that humans and wolves worked together hunting game. Wolves were the superior tracker but humans were the superior killer; thus wolves would lead humans to the prey and title: Man's best friend (phrase) text: follows you until the end. The statement that "Dog is man's best friend" was first recorded as being made by Frederick, King of Prussia (1740-1786). Frederick referred to one of his Italian Greyhounds as his best friend. The earliest citation in the U.S. is traced to a poem printed in "The New-York Literary Journal, Volume 4", 1821: In 1870 Warrensburg, Missouri, George Graham Vest represented a farmer suing for damages after his dog, Old Drum, had been shot and killed. Vest’s closing speech included this quote, “The one absolutely unselfish friend that a man can have in this selfish world, title: Man's best friend (phrase) text: and guarding, and language describing the dog often reflected these roles. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “In the oldest proverbs and phrases dogs are rarely depicted as faithful or as man’s best friend, but as vicious, ravening, or watchful.” Beginning in the 18th century, multiplying in the 19th and flourishing in the 20th century, language and attitudes towards dogs began to shift. Possibly, this societal shift can be attributed to discovery of the rabies vaccine in 1869. In Homer's "Odyssey" (c. 8th century BC), upon Odysseus' return, his beloved dog Argos is the only individual to recognize him. Odysseus title: Man's best friend (phrase) text: the one that never deserts him and the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog.” In 1958, a statue of Old Drum was erected on the Johnson County Courthouse lawn containing a summation of Vest’s closing speech, “A man’s best friend is his dog.” Much earlier, however, Voltaire had written in his "Dictionnaire philosophique" of 1764: Translated, this reads: In 1941, Ogden Nash wrote "An Introduction to Dogs," beginning: Man's best friend (phrase) "Man's best friend" is a common phrase about domestic dogs, referring to their millennia-long history of close relations, loyalty, and companionship with humans. The title: Running dog text: Running dog Running dog is a literal translation into English of the Chinese pejorative 走狗 (Chinese: "zǒu gǒu"), meaning lackey or lapdog, an unprincipled person who helps or flatters those more powerful and often evil. It is derived from the tendency of dogs to follow after humans in hopes of receiving food scraps. Historian Yuan-tsung Chen notes that while "In the West, a dog is a man's best friend; but in China, dogs are abject creatures. In Chinese, no idiomatic expression was more demeaning than the term 'running dogs.'" Historian Chang-tai Hung says the term "imperialist running dog" ("diguozhuyi de