Angela Finlayson looks at the impact horses have left on the English language.
SINCE mankind first harnessed the power of horses around 6,000 years ago, these strong, graceful and intelligent creatures have been inextricably linked with the evolution of human life on earth.
They gave us a means of transporting both people and goods; they powered machinery, ploughed fields, carried soldiers on to the battlefield, made our postal service possible and inspired myriad artworks from cave paintings to Old Masters.
No other species has contributed more to human culture and civilisation.
Little wonder, then, that the horse has also left its mark on our language! ■
Don’t Look A Gift Horse In The Mouth
How often have disappointed recipients of less-than-welcome Christmas and birthday presents heard this?
It may seem an obscure way of warning someone not to be ungrateful, but it comes from the fact that a horse’s teeth are a reliable indicator of its age.
To look in the mouth of a horse you’ve been given suggests you’re criticising the gift by checking to see how old a nag you’ve been saddled with.
Hold Your Horses
Everyone knows this saying, which means “slow down, be patient”, but how many realise its first recorded appearance was in “The Iliad”, Homer’s epic poem written in the eighth century BC?
The Ancient Greeks were consummate horsemen who prized the noble animals so much that they revered them in their mythology and immortalised them in art and sculpture.
From Pegasus to the Trojan Horse, the Greeks raised horses to an almost divine level.
A One-horse Town
This way of describing a dull, uneventful place can be traced back to 1850s America, where some of the towns were, allegedly, so small and sparsely populated that just one horse could meet all the transport and labour needs.
Champing At The Bit
When a horse is eager to move off, it often chews – champs – at the metal bit in its mouth.
The phrase, meaning to be keen to get started, dates to the 16th century – a time when the horse provided the main mode of transport.
Get Off Your High Horse
In the Middle Ages, the tallest, strongest war horses were a status symbol, ridden only by royalty and nobility.
It’s not too much of a stretch, then, to see how this phrase came to refer to someone behaving arrogantly or pretentiously!
Horse-power
