Dog-days

1 definition found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Dog days \Dog" days`\, dog-days \dog-days\
     A period of from four to six weeks, in the summer, variously
     placed by almanac makers between the early part of July and
     the early part of September; canicular days; -- so called in
     reference to the rising in ancient times of the Dog Star
     (Sirius) with the sun. Popularly, the sultry, close part of


     the summer; metaphorically, a period of inactivity.
  
     Syn: dog days, canicule, canicular days.
          [1913 Webster + WordNet 1.5]
  
     Note: The conjunction of the rising of the Dog Star with the
           rising of the sun was regarded by the ancients as one
           of the causes of the sultry heat of summer, and of the
           maladies which then prevailed. But as the conjunction
           does not occur at the same time in all latitudes, and
           is not constant in the same region for a long period,
           there has been much variation in calendars regarding
           the limits of the dog days. The astronomer Roger Long
           states that in an ancient calendar in Bede (died 735)
           the beginning of dog days is placed on the 14th of
           July; that in a calendar prefixed to the Common Prayer,
           printed in the time of Queen Elizabeth, they were said
           to begin on the 6th of July and end on the 5th of
           September; that, from the Restoration (1660) to the
           beginning of New Style (1752), British almanacs placed
           the beginning on the 19th of July and the end on the
           28th of August; and that after 1752 the beginning was
           put on the 30th of July, the end on the 7th of
           September. Some English calendars now put the beginning
           on July 3d, and the ending on August 11th. A popular
           American almanac of the present time (1890) places the
           beginning on the 25th of July, and the end on the 5th
           of September.
           [1913 Webster]