origin of the term dog days of summer
Dog days The English name is a calque of the Latin dies caniculares (lit. "the puppy days"), itself a calque of the Greek kynádes hēmérai (κυνάδες ἡμέραι, "dog days").[1] The Greeks knew the star α Canis Majoris by several names, including Sirius (Σείριος, Seírios, "Scorcher"), Sothis (Σῶθις, Sôthis, a transcription of Egyptian Spdt), and the Dog Star (Κῠ́ων, Kúōn).[2] The last name reflects the way Sirius follows the constellation Orion into the night sky.[3]
Three Dog Night The official commentary included in the CD set Celebrate: The Three Dog Night Story, 1964â€“1975 states that vocalist Danny Hutton's girlfriend, actress June Fairchild (best known as the "Ajax Lady" from the Cheech and Chong movie Up In Smoke) suggested the name after reading a magazine article about indigenous Australians, in which it was explained that on cold nights they would customarily sleep in a hole in the ground while embracing a dingo, a native species of feral dog. On colder nights they would sleep with two dogs and, if the night were freezing, it was a "three dog night".[4]