WHAT DOES THE DOG DANCE WITH MONEY AND WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

The saying "the dog dances for money" alludes to the power that money exercises in human behavior and will.

The dog is taken to illustrate this action because it is the closest and most dependent animal to man, capable of being trained at the will of its master and always in exchange for a reward.

Paremiology (a discipline that studies sayings and proverbs) has not been able to specify the origin of the saying.

It is estimated that it can come from Spain and date from a date close to the year 1830 or even come from some previous centuries.

The construction of sayings

From a series of reflections that were repeated in daily conversations and that alluded to collective wisdom, phrases and proverbs were consolidated in popular imagery that served to reinforce everything from superstitions to moral and educational ideas about all aspects of life.

To exemplify human actions, bad or good, phrases that included different animals were used since their behavior could be clearly understood by any individual.

Sayings were built on oral tradition from experience in areas as varied as medicine, gastronomy, religion, and agronomy.

The second origin of the existence of sayings comes from literature, poems, biblical phrases and stories that have penetrated society.

As a characteristic feature in all the sayings, the construction of the phrase would be made from parallels, the antithesis, the ellipsis and the rhythm in order to achieve a suitable play on words.

First written record of "the dog dances for money"

The saying "the dog dances for money" comes from oral tradition and is presumed to have been built in Spain. There is a long tradition of refraining in that country dating from the 15th century, and even Arab reflections from the 11th and 12th centuries.

The authors of popular old poems and songs are generally difficult to identify, in the case of a saying the detection of its origin is usually more uncertain, since the shorter the phrase the faster it is reproduced and its origin forgotten.

In the case of "the dog dances for money" there is a record of the Comedy of an act written by Luis de Eguílaz and presented in Cádiz in 1830, which bears precisely that title.

This moralizing comedy was written by this playwright when he was just 14 years old.

This suggests that the phrase was not an unpublished creation, but rather was already popularized and represented an ideal title for a moralistic work.

Complementary phrases of the saying, variants and synonyms

"The dog dances for money" is the phrase that has become popular until its use today. But there are records with other variants such as: "For money the dog dances and for bread if they give it to him."

From the same saying there are similar and synonymous phrases such as:

- The dog dances for money and not for the sound that the blind man makes him.

- For money dance the monkey (Cuba)

- The can dance for silver (Argentina)

- If you want the dog to follow you, give it the bread.

References

1. Tejero, E. (1997). Geographic paremiology in the Community of Madrid. Madrid: Paremia. Retrieved on October 12, 2017 from: cvc.cervantes.es books.google.es
2. Mendizábal, M. (2005). Mexican popular saying. Mexico: Selector. Retrieved on October 12, 2017 from: books.google.es
3. Sevilla Muñoz, J. (1988). Towards a conceptual approach to the French and Spanish paremias. Madrid: Editorial Complutense. Retrieved on October 12, 2017 from: books.google.es
4. Carbonell Basset, D. (2002). Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Sayings. Barcelona: Herder.
5. Sawicki, P. (2002). Castilian sayings about animals. Madrid: Complutense Slavistics. Retrieved on October 12, 2017 from: books.google.es