doggie bag. A travel container for taking home the remains of a dinner eaten in a sit-down restaurant. The term is a euphemism implying that the humans would never be so needy or stingy as to want to eat the remains themselves: the food is for the dog.

I guessed that this term is left over from the times when only the wealthy ate out, which appears to be the case. Being wealthy it would, naturally, be odd to worry about waste or need to hang on to food one had already paid for. The term allows the diner to avoid admitting that the price of a meal out is indeed notable and that leftover food is destined to be eaten later by the consumer. Apparently, while it is unacceptable for a human to eat leftovers, it’s completely reasonable that a dog would do the same. Given the definition of dog's breakfast, it might appear that a leftovers from Chez Panisse would be considered real gourmet event for a dog. This interlocutor doubts that many dogs saw those remains, however.

The California Restaurant Association claims that doggie bags (also initially called “bags for bones”) were introduced by Lawry's Prime Rib in Los Angeles in 1938. The restaurant chain claims many firsts including serving salad before dinner and valet parking. Even if you have never heard of Lawry's, the rib joint, you may have eaten the famed Lawry's seasoned salt.

These days, when cooking at home is beginning to seem like a luxury and eating out at the end of a grueling day in our dog-eat-dog world is cheap (if lacking in nutrition), bringing the remains home is simply good sense. Perhaps the euphemism will fade with time. However, a 2001 CBS radio feature story about the rise in requests for doggie bags (said rise attributed to an economic “downturn”) used the term repeatedly. Whether the requests actually result in food being taken home and eaten is another question. Sylvie Le Mer, owner of Ti Couz, a creperie in San Francisco's Mission District, reports that “90% of people asking to package their leftovers [are] leaving them behind.”

A Seinfeld monologue plays off of the phrase, as if it were meant to be taken literally:

About the illustrations: Well, you might say that Figure 1 is not a doggie bag, per se. This image of the classic Chinese food take-out container refers more directly to food that is purchased with the expectation that it will be consumed at a place other than the restaurant. Still, I think it calls forth the idea of taking food home more than any other I could conceive of. Image by the author.

Figure 2 is a more traditional bag, I added the Lawry's logo. © 2009 Jupiterimages Corporation.

Figure 3 is an altered low-resolution version of a Jerry Seinfeld image taken from the IMDB site.