American English, early 19th century

There’s a story in Greek mythology in which Dido bargains with the Berber king Iarbas for a small piece of land — just enough that it can be encircled by an oxhide. He agrees, and Dido proceeds to cut an oxhide into small strips and produce enough material to make it around a nearby hill. According to myth, that settlement became Carthage, and Dido was the first queen. The history of Dido and Carthage is much more involved, but the idiom “to cut a dido,” meaning “to play a prank,” traces directly back to the queen and her oxhide.