Word for the Wise

July 27, 2007 Broadcast

Topic: Dodge

A small city on the Arkansas River begins celebrating Dodge City Days today. By the time the ten day period is over, more than one hundred thousand visitors will have come and gone. Yes, we are saying that they will have gotten into—and gotten out of—Dodge.

To the British, something dodgy is "tricky; shaky; chancy;" or "risky." To slangsters, being on the dodge is code for "living without a fixed address to escape arrest."

But to get out of Dodge is "to leave or get out in a hurry." What's the connection between the city and the various dodgy senses out there? To begin with, etymologists don't know much about how dodge came by that name. But historians do know quite a bit about how getting out of Dodge entered the lexicon.

Dodge is short for Dodge City, Kansas, the town beginning its festivities today. Named for General Grenville M. Dodge, Dodge City became a boomtown during the days of the Wild West when cattle on the Great Western Trail were driven through its stockyards. Its frontier town fame lasted into the 20th century when the radio (and later television) western drama Gunsmoke claimed the real Dodge City as its fictional home. Bad guys were well-advised to "get out of Dodge" lest Marshall Matt Dillon escort them out.

Questions or comments? Write us at wftw@aol.com Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and Web sites including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.