# "Dog" and "Capitalist" I get, but "Running?"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dog-and-capitalist-i-get-but-running/622886>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 23, 2012, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dog-and-capitalist-i-get-but-running/622886 "2012-05-23T22:55:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dog-and-capitalist-i-get-but-running/622886/1 "2012-05-23T22:55:39Z")

</div>

How is that insulting? Or is something lost in the translation? “Dog with the runs?”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dog-and-capitalist-i-get-but-running/622886/2 "2012-05-23T22:57:35Z")

</div>

I think I heard that’s the equivalent of “communist sympathizers”, i.e. those who don’t necessarily benefit but support it anyway, i.e they are lowly yet loyal like a dog running aside its master. But I’m not 100% certain on that.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dog-and-capitalist-i-get-but-running/622886/3 "2012-05-23T22:58:37Z")

</div>

I seem to remember learning the term as “Capitalist running dog lackeys”. Could it be because they are always scrambling around trying to get ahead?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dog-and-capitalist-i-get-but-running/622886/4 "2012-05-23T23:13:03Z")

</div>

I always figured it was a “running away like the cowardly curs they are” kind of thing.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dog-and-capitalist-i-get-but-running/622886/5 "2012-05-23T23:26:47Z")

</div>

> **[Running dog](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_dog)**
>
> Running dog is a pejorative term for an unprincipled person who helps or flatters those more powerful and often evil. It is a literal translation of the Chinese pejorative 走狗 (pinyin: zǒugǒu), meaning a yes-man or lackey, and is derived from the tendency of dogs to follow after humans in hopes of receiving food scraps. Historian Yuan-tsung Chen notes that "In the West, a dog is a man's best friend; but in China, dogs are abject creatures. In Chinese, no idiomatic expression \[is\] more demeaning th...