The idiom “Every dog has its day” means that everyone gets their moment, and has been used by ancient Greeks, Romans, and Europeans. It can refer to overcoming oppression or achieving success. In modern times, it typically means that everyone has the potential for success. In the past, it was understood to refer to revenge. Plutarch used a similar phrase to refer to the rights of the oppressed, while Shakespeare used it to suggest that wrongs will be righted in the future.
Every dog has his day is an English idiom that means everyone gets his moment. While this particular idiom is English, the similar meaning and usages of Every Dog Has Its Day is not unique to English-speaking countries. Ancient Greeks, Romans, and other Europeans have used similar terms in published writings for several centuries. Depending on the specific context used, the term can mean that even the humblest man has an opportunity to overcome his oppressors or an opportunity to right wrongs done against him. Modern usage, on the other hand, typically means that everyone, regardless of political or socioeconomic standing, has the potential to enjoy some measure of success, if only for a short time.
While the idiom that every dog has its day has come, in modern times, to mean that every person has his or her chance or breakthrough in success, those meanings haven’t always been understood. During the ancient times and continuing into the medieval times, most people understood that similar comparisons to every dog has the day of him to refer to revenge. Both Plutarch and Shakespeare, for example, referred to such implied meanings in works produced long before the English idiom as it is known today.
Plutarch, a Greek historian and essayist, first used a similar phrase in AD 95. Notably, Plutarch expressed his use of the concept as “…even a dog takes revenge”. Used in that context, Plutarch referred to the rights of those who have been unjustly oppressed or whose integrity has been questioned to rise up and reclaim their freedom, dignity and destiny. Contextual clues in Plutarch’s writings suggest that the writer preferred “every dog has his day” and similar idioms to mean that even the humblest man has the right and opportunity to improve his situation, fight oppression or contribute to society in a meaningful, honorable way.
Shakespeare used a similar phrase in Hamlet. During Act 5, Scene 1, Hamlet talks to Queen Gertrude and King Claudius, moments after the famous line “Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him… ”Just before leaving the scene at the end of the scene, the last line of Hamlet reads“… Let Hercules himself do what he can. The cat will meow and the dog will have the day of him.
In this part of the play, Hamlet grieved for the lost Ophelia, fighting with Laertes in an open grave. As King Claudius halted the fighting, Hamlet, in his last statement before leaving the scene, swears that wrongs will be righted. Using idiom strikingly similar to Every Dog Has His Day, Hamlet meant that he would have the opportunity, at some point in the future, to right any perceived wrong committed against himself or Ophelia.
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