The question isn't whether they're historically related, but whether they are sufficiently similar as to be comparative -- the american hotdog and the german sa

The question isn't whether they're historically related, but whether they are sufficiently similar as to be comparative -- the american hotdog and the german sausage may have shared elements, and presumably shared roots, and I wouldn't doubt that the hotdog is a modified sausage -- but they are so distinctly different in taste, texture, quality, usecase and goals, that it doesn't really make sense to say that the german sausage is a better hotdog, or vice versa. Even if the hotdog was still called a sausage. (and sticking a full sausage on a hotdog bun? A criminal act if I ever saw one) If it doesn't look like a duck, and it doesn't quack like a duck, then it ain't a duck. Even if you called it a duck the last 500 years, it still ain't a duck -- at least, it's not a duck like my duck's a duck.