Conference thebay::joyoflex

228.0. "Horse Sense" by MYCRFT::PARODI (John H. Parodi) Tue Aug 12 1986 11:48

From Richard Lederer's "Looking At Language" column in the Concord (NH)
Monitor:

                     Horsing Around In English
                     =========================

  In modern life, horses are no longer crucial in helping us to hunt, do 
  battle, draw vehicles, round up livestock or deliver mail.  
  Nevertheless, our equine friends still figure prominently in the words 
  and phrases we use in everyday conversations and writing.

  "Horsefeathers!" you respond, bridling at my suggestion and working 
  yourself into a lather.  "Now hold your horses, you horse's ass.  
  You're just trying to spur me on to the end of my tether and beat a 
  dead horse."

  The meaning of the horsey expressions in the paragraph above are pretty 
  clear, but *horsefeathers* deserves a brief etymological exegesis.  
  Rows of clapboards are laid on roofs to provide flat surfaces for 
  asphalt shingles, called "feather strips."  Oldtimers in New England 
  and New York, noting the feather-like pattern, called the clapboards
  horsefeathers.

  Why is *horse* the first element in the word?  Because the boards were 
  large and large things sometimes attract the designation *horse*, as in 
  *horse chestnut*, *horsefly* and *horse mackerel*.

  But why has horsefeathers -- like *tommyrot*, *balderdash*, and 
  *poppycock* -- become a three-syllable explosion of derision?  Because 
  it is a euphemism for a shorter, scatological epithet.

  A *paddockful* of additional words show the significand and enduring 
  influence of our neigh-saying fellow creatures.  *Cavalcade*, 
  *cavalier*, *cavalry* and *chivalry* all descend from common French 
  roots meaning "horseman" or "horseback."  *Henchman* in Middle English 
  was *hengestman*, "groom."  *Handicap* springs from "hand-in-the-cap," 
  or "handi'cap," an early English horse-betting game in which a cap was 
  used to hold forfeit money.  *Marshal* has come up in the world from 
  its original Old French meaning of "horse servant."  And any variation 
  on the name *Philip* means, literally, "one who loves horses."

  And four more words exhibit especially engaging equine etymologies:

  Some language experts believe that *bastard* is founded on the Old 
  French term *fils de bast* (literally "son of a pack saddle") because 
  muleteers used the *bast* as an impromptu bed.

  The ancient Greeks reasoned that a *hippopotamus* looked as much like a 
  horse as anything else so they called him a "river horse," from 
  *hippos*, "horse," and *potamus, "river."

  The adjective *jaded* evolved from the Icelandic noun *jalda*, "mare."  
  Horses in that semi-frozen country were often gaunt and overworked.  By 
  the time *jalda* reached England, it was pronounced *jaded* and stood 
  for any broken-down horse.  By extension *jaded* has come to signify 
  any person who has been spent by excess.

  To *pester* originally meant "to tether a grazing horse" because the 
  Romans ensured that their mounts did not wander too far by confining 
  them with a *pastorium*, "a foot shackle."  In French the word became 
  *empestrer*, "to hobble," and in English, through foreclipping, *pester*.

  Now that we've ridden herd on the words in our language that have 
  horsey histories, it's time to trot out the equine expressions that are 
  stabled in our vocabulary.  Today I'll take you for a ride through the 
  letter c.  Next week, we'll gallop through the rest of the alphabet.

  We often call an exasperatingly entangled situation *all balled up*.  
  The spheroids in this expression are the icy balls that become packed 
  on the hooves of horses when they are driven over soft winter snow, 
  often during spring thaws.  As the footing becomes treacherous, the 
  horses may fall, singly or in teams, producing a state of chaos that is 
  vividly *all balled up*.

  When is a holiday not a holiday?  When it's a *busman's holiday*.  This 
  term originated with the close relationship between horse teams and 
  drivers back in the last century, when London omnibuses (whence our 
  word *buses*) were horse-drawn.  The regular driver would often spend 
  his day off riding as a passenger alongside the substitute driver in 
  order to check his replacement's handling of the horses and treatment 
  of the riders.  That's why a vacation or day off from work spent doing 
  the same activity as one'ss usual occupation is called a *busman's holiday*.

  A *charley horse* is a muscular cramp in the leg or arm of an athlete.  
  Fanciful explanations for the origin of this compound include one story 
  that the first victim was a lamed racehorse named Charley and another 
  that a limping horse of the same name used to drag a roller in the 
  Chicago White Sox Comiskey Park.

  One of the most subtle allusions to horses is the word *cinch*, meaning 
  a sure thing.  When a cowboy mounts a half-wild cow pony, he buckles 
  the saddle on tight with a strong cinch strap.  He bets his life on the 
  cinch, so it has to be a sure thing.  Through the process of semantic 
  generalization, any sure thing has become a *cinch*.

  When an adventure fails badly, particulary after an auspicious 
  beginning, we say that it has *come a cropper*.  This expression is a 
  figurative extension of the jargon of horse racing and polo playing 
  that mans "to tumble headlong from a horse."  To *come a cropper* is 
  founded on the early 19th century English saying "neck and crop," the 
  path a rider usually took in being tossed from a horse.

  To *curb one's anger* and to *curry favor* are two more embedded 
  phrases that we trot out from the vanishing world of horses.  A curb is 
  a type of bit that exerts severe pressure on a horse's jaws, much in 
  the manner that we control our rage, or any other strong impulse.  The 
  act of currying is the cleaning and grooming of a horse's coat with a 
  curry comb, much in the manner that we groom and pamper a good opinion 
  when we want that one for ourselves.