In what year did the term “hot dog” first appear in print? The answer is 1884.
An early documented use appeared in the Evansville Daily Courier on September 14, 1884. The phrase referred to sausage meat being sold on a street corner, demonstrating that “hot dog” was already in print before the better-known 1890s examples.
The term appeared again in the Paterson Daily Press in 1892, where it described a sausage in casing being inserted into a cut roll. Additional newspaper appearances followed in 1893.
These early examples challenge the popular story that cartoonist Tad Dorgan coined the expression around 1900. His earliest documented use of “hot dog” dates to 1906, well after the phrase had already appeared in newspapers. The 1884 evidence concerns the term’s use for sausage meat, not necessarily the fully assembled modern sandwich.