Well, doggies! Way doggies! Hoo, doggies!

In alt.english.usage , we have been discussing the possible origin of "Well, doggies!" "Way doggies!" "Hoo, doggies!" I figured it was a variation of "Oh God!" based upon the report in AHD4 that "doggone" is an "Alteration of Scots dagone, alteration of *goddamn.*" I said "Perhaps 'Dagnabbit!' contains the same 'dag.'" I associate "Well, doggies!" with the hill people of Tennessee. It was, of course, used by Jed Clampett in *The Beverly Hillbillies,* a character from Bugtussle, Tennessee. That state had a lot of Scots Irish immigrants (aka "Scotch Irish"), and I figured that a distortion of "God" in "Oh God!" had occurred in their dialect as that which had occurred in Scots with "dagone."
Tony Cooper is of the opinion that "Well, doggies!" comes from the term *dogie,* used in the Old West for a motherless calf.

So I did some research on the matter. The OED2 gives for the etymology of "dog-gone" the following: "Generally taken as a deformation of the profane God damn : cf. dang, darn. But some think the original form was dog on it, to be compared with pox on it! etc.; Cf. Dog sb.1 17j. (See also Sc. Nat. Dict. s. v. dag. )"
I took a look at *The Scottish National Dictionary,* Edinburgh: The Scottish National Dictionary Association, Limited, (C) 1952. From its entry for "dag": "DAG, Deg, Dig, Dog, int. Also dags, dogs. A mild form of oath ; used as an imprecation = confound !" It did not have "dagone," but it had "dagon't" and "digont" and used "dagon" in an example. It also mentioned "dags (dogs) rabbit it" and gave "dogsrabbit it" in an example. (See my comment about "dagnabbit" given above.) The etymology it gave was "Origin obscure. Prob. a corruption of God ( damn, dang, etc.). Some variations are due to confusion with dog : cf. American slang dog-doge, dog on, doggoned it, id. (D.A.E.)" I was unable to find out what "D.A.E." stood for.
I checked the Dictionary of the American West* by Winfred Blevins, Facts on File, (C) 1993, and *Western Words: A Dictionary of the American West by Ramon F. Adams, New Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, (C) 1968. I wanted to see if either one had "dogie" or "doggie" as an interjection. They did not, but a comment in Adams's book pointed out to a confusion between "dogie" and "doggie" Tony Cooper had thought that such a confusion had occurred with "Well, doggies!" that it had been "Well, dogies!" From the entry for "dogie": "The term (dogie) became popular through western songs, though a great percentage of the singers pronounce it doggie, as if they were singing of a pup."

I then checked the Dictionary of American Regional English ("DARE"), Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, (C) 1991.
(quote)
doggies, by* exclam Also by dogies Cf *dog n1 B7, *dog v 6,* and DS NN6-9
1956* Moody Home Ranch 20 CO (Colorado) (as of 1911), "Fifty miles, huhh!" he snorted, "By dogies." *c1970* Halpert Coll. *wKY, wTN (western Kentucky, western Tennessee), By doggies = a mild oath.

(end quote)
I tried finding what "Halpert Coll." stood for, but did not locate in in DARE. I expect it is a book by Herbert Halpert, a folklorist who studied, among other things, Appalachian dialectal usages.
DARE also shows "dog" used "in var euphem exclams, esp dog bite (it), ~ take (it) and varr It gives for the etymology "Euphem for God. " and identifies the use as South and South Midland.
Besides all of the above, I also learned that "doggy" has been used to mean "Dashing, stylish, smart." (source, OED2 entry for "dog"). This could conceivably be a source of "Well, doggies!"

Raymond S. Wise
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com