I was doing a little research into the history of the clerical collar and noted the following in the wiki:

In the United Kingdom (and other British-influenced countries, such as Canada), clerical collars have been informally referred to as dog collars since the mid-nineteenth century.

Can I take it from this that in the US it is not so informally known?

aldiboronti - 18 April 2012 03:19 AM

I was doing a little research into the history of the clerical collar and noted the following in the wiki:

In the United Kingdom (and other British-influenced countries, such as Canada), clerical collars have been informally referred to as dog collars since the mid-nineteenth century.

Can I take it from this that in the US it is not so informally known?

It is also known by that here as well. That may be influenced by the Episcopalians who are members of the world-wide Anglican Communion and they wear these pieces of Clerical attire. I was just on a Good Friday neighborhood walk and our Episcopal priest wore the full Roman Collar. Said Episcopal Priest (by the name of David) has written a piece on this subject and in it he uses the phrase “dog collar.”

I was about to post that I had only heard the phrase in a British context, but then I realized that, growing up Presbyterian, I’ve never spent much time around denominations where clergy wore the collars. For all I know, it could be very common among other religious circles. A nice example of how personal perspective can skew one’s perception of where a word or phrase is used.

Among my Orthodox clergy brethren it is sometimes referred as a “dog collar”.

Dave Wilton - 18 April 2012 03:58 AM

I was about to post that I had only heard the phrase in a British context, but then I realized that, growing up Presbyterian, I’ve never spent much time around denominations where clergy wore the collars. For all I know, it could be very common among other religious circles. A nice example of how personal perspective can skew one’s perception of where a word or phrase is used.

Right, we in the more Reformed and low church traditions tend not to wear them though that’s not universally true. I did note that a female Lutheran pastor on that same Good Friday walk was wearing the “dog collar.”

The dog collar usually refers to the full piece of plastic attached to a specially designed shirt with metal studs and not the “tabbed” collar that is made to look like the priest is wearing a cassock. Generally speaking, here in the US, Roman Catholic priests tend to wear tabbed collars and Episcopalians and Lutherans wear dog collars. I own a tabbed collar shirt from the days when I visited prisons. I don’t do much of that anymore. And hospitals require their own name plates these days for us to get any private information on those whom we are visiting. The collars won’t get us that information.

Edited for typo.