You need n’t have been on the receiving remainder of a two-fold ( or triple ) dog defy to realize its implications for any self - respecting20th - century schoolchild . All it really admit is one viewing of 1983’sA Christmas Story .
In the film , probablyset in 1939 , Ralphie watches in revulsion as his ally Flick valiantly resists a treble dare and then a double dog dare before finally cave to the insistence of the dreaded triple frank daring . ( The daring itself is for Flick to puzzle out a frozen flagpole , with calamitous but not altogether surprising consequences for his tongue . )
“ The precise exchange and nuance of phrase in this rite is very important , ” an adult Ralphie narrates over the action .
It ’s not hard to guess whydoublegot added todarein this years - older schoolyard custom . It automatically heightens the post — and the match pressure — without actually neuter the stakes themselves . But what dodogshave to do with it ?
Unfortunately , nobody really have it away . What we do know is that tyke have been duple blackguard daring each other at least since the late nineteenth century . On his blogThe Big Apple , Barry Popik unearthed a act of references todouble dog darefrom the 1890s . One of them comes from the 1896 bookThe Child and Childhood in Folk - Thought , in which Alexander Francis Chamberlainreportsa certain “ scale of challenging ” used by children in Kentucky :
“ I dare you ; I blackguard dare you ; I double dog dare you . Idare you ; I black dog dare you ; I duplicate black dog dare you . ”
Dogdoes have a few definition that are n’t wholly out of step with the connotation of the phrase . It can mean to keep at something or pursue someone persistently ; and you might indeed feel a routine hounded if your playground rival come to you with a progression of double and triple dog dares after you ’ve refused a regular one . Doghas also long been used as a stand - in oath forGodanddamn(separately ) . Whether 19th - century kids were thinking about the lexical story of the worddogwhen they started issuing double heel presume is anyone ’s guess . It ’s possible , as Michael Quinion posited on hisWorld Wide Wordsblog , that it just sounded skillful .
“ Where the firedog make out in I ’m not at all surely , except thatdogis a good strong Bible , with dozens of potentially disparaging undertones , whose alliteration must have made it particularly attractive , ” he write .
