Every winter the expression comes back: “it’s freezing cold”. The expression does not arise from legends or historical episodes, but from the role that the word dog has had for centuries in Italian: a strengthener with a negative flavor, the same as “dog’s life” or “bad dog”. Over time, popular explanations have been woven around this saying – dogs left out in the cold, the harshness of the countryside – fascinating but undocumented. The parallel with French is curious froid de canard (cold like a duck): a sign that animal hyperbole, when it comes to talking about the cold, is a European linguistic game.
But what does this expression really mean and where does it come from? The major lexicographic repertoires agree: bitter cold (or dog cold) is a “rigid, very intense cold”, that is, a hyperbolic expression.
The origin is uncertain and there are several theories. When trying to trace the origin of the expression, the most solid and shared explanation is the linguistic one: in Italian the word dog has had a value of pejorative intensifier, as shown by crystallized formulas of the “dog’s life” or “dog’s life” type. In this sense, the expression “cold as hell” would be nothing more than yet another hyperbole born by analogy with other ways of saying, without the need for particular historical or cultural references.
Alongside this interpretation, however, another interpretation has spread, more narrative than scientific: the idea that the expression refers to the hard life of dogs left outdoors, forced to endure frost and bad weather. The idea is suggestive: in past centuries, especially in the countryside and in rural homes, dogs were not considered affectionate or domestic animals like today. They were often kept outside, even chained, as guardians of livestock or property, sometimes fed little to maintain their aggressiveness, and left exposed to the elements and frost.
These interpretations, although not attested in historical dictionaries or etymological repertoires, are useful from a socio-cultural point of view as they offer a vivid image of the historical life context of animals and peasant families. However, these are narrative hypotheses, plausible but not documented on an etymological level.
Other hypotheses circulate mainly online, without a solid linguistic basis. Faced with this mosaic of explanations, it is useful to remember the warning of the Accademia della Crusca: when you come across etymologies that are too picturesque and devoid of authoritative sources, it is better to suspend judgement. It also applies to “cold dog”: beyond the legends, the only solid basis remains the historical role of the term “dog” as a negative intensifier.
Our expression corresponds to the French froid de canard, so much so that bilingual dictionaries translate it’s freezing cold as “il fait un froid de canard” (it’s a duck cold). In France the most cited origin links the phrase to the duck hunting season, when the great cold makes them more visible, or to the palmiped’s resistance to the cold (if it’s freezing for him too, then it’s really cold). It doesn’t prove the Italian origin, but it shows how the animal image is pan-European when it comes to frost.
