Do any of you remember daring others when you were in school? I bet you did! Then, as if that weren’t enough we might even double dare our peers.

The double dare challenge soon expanded to double-dog dare. A simple dare had become a double dare in an effort to raise the stakes or make it more imperative to respond. It meant that if the person being dared went through with the dare, the daree would also do the same. 

A wonderful authority on the etymology of terms, regarding the “double dog dare,” Charlene Dargay, wrote that it started with children in America at least as far back as the late 19th century. She cited “The Child and Childhood in Folk Thought” by Alexander Francis Chamberlain, published simultaneously in New York and London in 1896, which has the following as coming from Kentucky:

“I dare you; I black dog dare you; I double black dog dare you. The language of the school-yard and street, in respect to challenges, fights, and contests of all sorts, has an atmosphere of its own, through which sometimes the most clear-sighted older heads find it difficult to penetrate.”

She notes that “black dog” was thieves slang for a bad shilling in England as early as 1706, and this may have been the inspiration for the “black dog” dare.

This terminology was actually mentioned earlier in “Dialect Notes” published by the American Dialect Society in Boston in 1890:

“Dare (daw). Children in quarrelling say, ‘I dare you,’ ‘I dog dare you,’ ‘I black dog dare you,’ ‘I double dog dare you,’ ‘I double black dog dare you.’” 

Then in 1893 in “Some Peculiarities in Speech in Mississippi” by Professor Hubert A. Shands, page 71:

“Dare. In Mississippi dare and double dog dare are used by children in quarrelling. Dog dare and double black dog dare I have never heard.”

Right now we should not dare others, but encourage one another. Perhaps we could challenge one another. Challenge others to think long and hard about the future of our country.

If you would like to know the origin of a favorite expression, text the author at 931-212-3303 or email him at stan@stclair.net.