Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origin 69. The word origin today or we
actually have two words was top dog and underdog. Okay. Good
if we say that someone is a top dog. Today, we mean that he is that he or she
is the leader. Someone in charge, especially in a competition or some type
of business. Somebody is the top dog. Top dog in the company. Number-one person in
the company. In competitions, the one considered most likely to win can also
be called the favorite. I think favorite is more common, if we think somebody is
likely to win. We're more likely to say the word favorite than top dog but you
could say top dog too. Okay. Let's continue. An underdog is a person, team or
group in competitions that most people think is not likely to win the game,
competition, election etc. Then we say somebody is the underdog. Okay. Both terms
are believed to come from the activity of dog fights in the 1800s. So they used
to have dog fights a lot. The winner was often referred to as the
upper dog , over dog or top dog. Okay. The first two terms seem to have faded away.
So we don't really hear upper dog or over dog anymore. Although you, you could
imagine that upper dog sounds very likely to be the opposite of underdog.
Okay. And do remember, I don't know if anybody does remember the very , very old
cartoon and they used to have a dog that was like a Superman dog. He was called
underdog. It's kind of strange in a way but it was it was kind of a funny little
cartoon way, way back and I don't know though 1960s 1970s something like that.
But it was a cute cartoon. But it really was just very much the same ideas like a
Superman, but it was called "Underdog. " Okay. Let's continue. The first two terms. Yeah.
it seemed to fade away. The loser was known as the underdog. So that's why we still
use that term today as the one that we think is least likely to win. So we would
say this underdog. So it really all comes back to dog fights that used to be very
common in the eighteen hundreds. And here's just a couple of examples of how
we may use it today. Example number one. Many people like to cheer for the
underdog. Yeah. We often hear this. The one that they think is less likely to win
and you know somehow it makes it more interesting if the underdog could pull
it out sometimes.. All right. And number two. He is the top dog in the company. Yes. So
we definitely use top dog to always to ... you know, often to mean like the
number one person or the person in charge. Okay. Anyway, I hope you got it . I hope it
was clear. Thank you for your time. Bye= bye.