Dachshunds, Dog Wagons and Other Important Elements of Hot Dog History Sausage is one of the oldest forms of processed food, having been mentioned in Homer's Odyssey as far back as the 9th Century B.C.
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There are several stories of the origin of the name Hotdog.
I like this one: In the late 1800s, German immigrants brought frankfurters and dachshund sausages (long, thin sausages that reminded people of the dog, dachshunds.) to the U.S. long, thin sausages that reminded people of dachshund dogs. At baseball parks and fairs, vendors shouted things like “Get your dachshund sausages while they’re red hot!” Cartoonists picked up on the joke. In 1901, sports cartoonist Tad Dorgan drew a comic showing vendors selling “hot dachshund sausages” but couldn’t spell “dachshund,” so he wrote “hot dogs” instead. The name stuck and by the 1910s, “hotdog” was the common term for the sausage in a bun. The word 'Hotdog" came from a mix of German sausage tradition, American humor, and a cartoon spelling shortcut that turned into culinary history.
Many say the Vienna sausage came first. Long before the American hotdog existed,
Wieners (from Wien/Vienna)
Franks/Frankfurters (from Frankfurt)
German and Austrian immigrants brought these sausages to the U.S. in the 1800s. Americans came up with the name Hotdogs!