A related phrase references a horse’s true colors, meaning not the shade or hue it was born with, but its ability to win a race and show what it’s truly made of.
Hobby Horse
Besides being a modeled horse head on a stick for a toy, a hobby horse was a sort of velocipede devised in England in the mid 1600s. One sat on the primitive bicycle and pushed oneself along with the feet. “Hobby” meant a small horse or pony, but because some people so enjoyed this mode of leisure transportation, hobby eventually came to mean what people chose to do during their leisure time.
In Britain especially, hobby horse also denotes one’s pet topic or even obsession (for instance, conspiracy-theory buffs). When one is told to get off one’s hobby horse—equivalent to a soapbox—it typically means enough already, we’ve heard all this before. To ride a hobby horse to death is to bore everyone else to tears with it. (One’s bete noire, black beast in French, is by contrast someone or something one particularly detests, a #1 pet peeve.)
Saddle. . .
Besides what one puts on a horse to ride it, a saddle is the lower part of the back of a mammal or fowl. To be saddled or burdened with something is, however, applied to humans, not horses. To be in the saddle is to be in charge—sometimes on a charger, historically a horse ridden by a knight or cavalryman.
A saddleback, apart from an architectural feature or a kind of hill, is a wattlebird from New Zealand, black with a reddish-brown back.
Saddlebags attach to a saddle. Now they’re also extra fat attached to the hips and thighs.
A saddle horse, like a sawhorse or clotheshorse, is a wooden frame or rack on which saddles are cleaned or stored.
Saddle soap, used to clean leather, ironically contains neat’s-foot oil, a euphemism for oil made by boiling the feet of cattle. (Neat is an archaic term of Germanic origin for bovine animals.)
A saddle sore on a horse’s back results from a poorly fitting saddle.
Saddle stitch is the stitch of thread or the wire staples one sees in the folds of magazines and booklets. It’s also a decorative needlework stitch alternating long stitches above with short stitches below.
A saddle tank is a small steam locomotive with a water tank fitted over the top and sides like a saddle.
Saddle shoes (remember them?) have nothing to do with horses.
What has a saddle to do with steak tartare? The Tartars of Central Asia were horsemen first and last, sometimes spending days at a time on their horses. Thundering across the Eurasian steppes, they often didn’t take time out for lunch, instead placing slabs of beef under their saddles until after several hours’ riding they became tenderized. We call it tartare because the French word presumably distracts from the fact of eating raw meat.
A Horse Is a Horse, Of Course, Of Course
Many or most august readers (or any other month) know that hippos is the ancient Greek word for horse, ergo hippopotamus (river horse, to someone with terrible eyesight), hippocampus (horse field), and so on. And of course August is named after the first Roman emperor, Octavian, who restyled himself Augustus.
But it may be slightly mystifying why Latin had two basic words for horse, caballus and the more famous equus (partly via the notorious play about blinding horses). From these two words derive nearly all horse-related words and terms in English and the Latin languages (sometimes called Romance languages not because of romance but Rome). Although a Germanic language, English exhibits a much greater Latin influence, one reason being the French (Norman) conquest of England in 1066. In German, for instance, horse is Pferd (go pfigure).
Basically, there’s the genus equus (horse), of which the wild horse, equus ferus, is a species. One of its subspecies is today’s domesticated horse, equus ferus caballus. Two other subspecies are Przewalski’s Horse, fortunately reintroduced into the wild after surviving the brink of extinction, and the Tarpan, which did become extinct in the 19th century.
So-called wild horses like the Mustang in the United States and the Brumby in Australia which roam free in herds are feral horses—untamed members of the domesticated equus ferus caballus—distinct from truly wild equine subspecies.
Pony. . .
A pony is a small breed of horse, not a baby horse, as many children think. A pony is also a small glass or measure of alcoholic drink and in Britain was slang for 25 pounds sterling. In the United States the ponies meant racehorses, and to pony up is to pay an amount of money, usually to settle an account.
A ponytail is so named for its resemblance to a horse’s tail but sounds more girlish. The simple, youthful hairdo was given a huge boost in the late 1950s by the Barbie doll (itself modeled on a sexy German doll sold mostly to grown men!).
A one-trick pony is someone or something limited to one special feature, talent, or asset.
To travel or go by Shank’s pony—also Shank’s mare in North America—means to use one’s own legs, and was first recorded as Shank’s nag in Robert Fergusson’s Poems in 1785.
Regarding a dog-and-pony show (see the chapter Dogs), philologist Mario Pei explained, “The pony was chosen over the horse in the combination because the sizes (of pony and dog) are nearer equal and in a production meant to impress, the pony is more rare than a horse.”
Colt and Filly
A colt is a young male horse, uncastrated, under four years of age. A filly is the female equivalent, but the adjective coltish, meaning energetic yet youthfully awkward in movement or behavior, is more often applied to teen girls than boys. (Filly is usually condescending, revealing less about a girl’s manner than the speaker’s paternalism.) UK animal behaviorist Barbara Woodhouse offered, “The bond between adolescent girls, often tomboys, and horses is famously fascinating. It is asexual, naturally, yet even so is passionate . . . the horse often substitutes for a future male or female lover. Repressed sexuality has much to do with this, as with young females’ sometimes hysterical aversion toward the harmless but hairy spider, which represents male carnality.”
In Britain a colt is also a member, usually male, of a junior sports team.
A coltsfoot is a yellow flower with large leaves that’s a member of the daisy family (the plural is coltsfoots, not coltsfeet).
A foal is a young horse, period, via Olde English fola, of Germanic origin and related to filly.
Mule. . .
People familiar with mules understand the expression stubborn as a mule, a rare instance of a descriptively accurate animal phrase.
A mule is also a hybrid plant or animal, particularly a sterile one, since a mule is the hybrid between a female horse and a male donkey, usually sterile.
The offspring of a male horse and a female donkey is a hinny, which in Scotland and northern England is also a term of endearment, a variation of honey.
Mule deer are North American deer with black tail markings and long ears.
Jackrabbit is an abbreviation of jackass-rabbit, a North American hare, so named because of its long ears, resembling those of a jackass or male donkey.
A mule is a stubborn person. Or a woman’s backless slipper, via mule, a French word for slipper that also means a female mule (mulet is a male mule). A mule is also a two-wheeled lifting trolley or dolly for moving heavy items by one person. More recently, a mule is an illegal-drugs courier.
A spinning mule is a spinning machine that yields yarn on spindles.
A mule train comprises a line of pack mules or a line of wagons drawn by mules. Its driver is inappropriately called a mule skinner.
Mulatto is an obsolete term for someone with one white and one black parent, on the pattern of mule from a horse and a donkey. It’s from the Spanish mulato, a young mule.
Ass. . .
The judgmental word asinine comes directly from non-judgmental Latin asinus, meaning ass. Related to the horse, an ass brays and has longer ears. Ass may also refer to any donkey or to a stupid person or what a person sits on. For centuries, the ass has been a symbol of stupidity, partly by comparison to its larger, more elegan
t relative the horse. Swiss zoologist Karl Bregi states, “The intelligence of animals is most often judged by their doing or learning to do what humans want of them. A horse may perform better in a circus than an ass, but yet it sometimes is a question of an animal resisting. Stubbornness is a factor.”
The few studies of donkey behavior indicate that they are intelligent and friendly. Regarding the relative intransigence of the horse’s smaller cousins, many animal behaviorists feel it reflects a greater degree of self-preservation than the horse displays (more horse sense?).
Dr. Bregi adds that the bias of looksism isn’t absent from human judgments of animals. “A horse is useful. It is also an animal for show and status, unlike its equine relatives, who are therefore adjudged less intelligent as well as less attractive.” Since the ancient Egyptians, longer ears have often consigned an animal to the category of shorter on brains. In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche wrote about wisdom, “But such words are not for long ears.”
To make an ass of oneself is to behave in a ridiculous or stupid manner. A horse’s ass is someone who behaves stupidly or badly or simply a person one dislikes intensely.
The suffix –ass is a derogatory intensifier, as in smartass or dumbass. Half-assed—half-arsed in Britain—means incompetent or inadequate, as indeed half an ass (of any kind) would be.
Donkey. . .
A donkey is also a domesticated relative of the horse that brays and has long ears. It too is synonymous with a foolish person. Many pejorative phrases apply to the donkey; seldom are its soulful eyes noted.
Donkey’s years means, in Britain, a very long time. Donkey ears are long, and in much of the country “years” and “ears” were and are pronounced the same.
To talk the hind leg off a donkey is to chatter on endlessly (related to talking a person’s leg off).
Donkey work is the hard or boringly routine part of any job.
A donkey stool is a low stool on which an artist sits.
A donkey engine is a small auxiliary engine.
Like a carrot to a donkey indicates a strong incentive or inducement.
A donkey jacket, used in Britain, is a heavy jacket bearing a waterproof leather patch over the shoulders. In British football (soccer) a poor or unskilled player is called a donkey; likewise in poker.
A donkey derby is a race between people riding donkeys.
“The Donkey Serenade” (1937) is a catchy, kicky tune composed by Czech-born Rudolf Friml.
A burro is a small donkey employed as a pack animal. A burrito is a Mexican appetizer or entrée, depending on its size, comprising a tortilla enveloping beans and/or minced beef and other ingredients. The name comes from its resemblance to the pack that a burro might carry.
Zebra Stripes. . .
In Britain this is a pedestrian crossing with white stripes. The British pronounce zebra with a short e, vs. the long American e—the pattern repeats in many words, especially with the vowels e and o. Sir Robert Morley, who played Oscar Wilde on stage and screen, offered, “The drawn-out American sound takes longer, is more forceful, and sometimes is brutal-sounding. . . . The way you say ‘homosexual’ makes it sound frightening and quite taboo. We say it more naturally.”
Contrary to popular belief, zebras and horses can mate. A zorse is the offspring of a female horse and male zebra. A zonkey or zebrass is produced by a she-donkey and a zebra stallion.
A zebra finch is a small Australian waxbill with a black-and-white striped face.
The question of whether zebras are white with black stripes or black with white stripes is answered: either. The animals’ shiny coats dissipate up to 70 percent of the sub-Saharan African sun’s heat; however, their black stripes can become hotter than the white ones by up to 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
(One doesn’t often see a human riding a zebra because zebras, far more resistant to human commands than horses, aren’t domesticated. Why haven’t people tried to domesticate zebras? Basically because there are more than enough horses, mules, etc., to go around.)
Similarly to Brits calling it a zebra crossing because of its colors and pattern, they often call a black-and-white police car a panda car.
More Horse Sayings
To put the cart before the horse is how this ancient saying about proper priorities is now said, but originally it was “Don’t push the cart before the horse.” That’s because technically a horse pushes, not pulls, a cart, by pushing at the collar of the harness attached to the cart.
To lock the stable door after the horse has bolted, run away, or been stolen is to take precautions after, not before, an unwanted event.
To “put one’s money on a scratched horse” is to gamble with no chance of winning or to bet on a sure failure—or what the other party (or fan of the other team) insists is a sure failure.
“A nod is the same as a wink to a blind horse” signifies that some situations don’t call for fine distinctions.
“Horses for courses” indicates sticking to what one knows or does best, and refers to the fact that certain horses ran better on particular courses, for example, a left-hand circuit, a right-hand circuit. (Would a horse that needs glasses do well on any course? The Racing Museum in York, England, displays a pair of bifocals created for a local nearsighted trotting horse.)
“Horses sweat, men perspire, and ladies only glow” was a traditional reproof (later listed in the 1972 book Nanny Says) to a child coarse enough to say somebody sweats.
“Wild horses wouldn’t drag it out of me.” (But a little wheedling might.) Unfortunately, this alludes to a real form of historical torture.
OTHER MAMMALS
Capitalist Cows
The combination of humans and cows probably launched capitalism, whose name comes from Latin caput, head. Cows are collectively numbered as head of cattle, and were likely the first property humans owned, once certain breeds of oxen were domesticated. Also, because a cow owner is necessarily less mobile than a horse owner, the domestication and husbandry of cattle was presumably instrumental in the first human settlements (husband was once synonymous with farmer). While horsemen could go rampaging across the plains and steppes, cattle and their hypothetically gentler owners developed fixed communities.
Pecus is a Latin word for cattle. The monetary adjective pecuniary is from Latin pecunia, money—even though it sounds like the name of a cartoon she-pig.
Penunze is a German word for money, and the Old High German feo, meaning cattle or property, survives in the English word fee.
A cash cow is an established property or product that yields consistent earnings (like this writer’s McDonald’s stock), while the golden calf was, to Moses’s wrath, overly prized by some ancient Israelites. Today a golden calf is a commodity valued or overvalued for its own sake.
A Beef, A Bone, No Bones
It’s similar to having a bone to pick, except you don’t need another person to have a beef. It didn’t always mean a complaint. The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue said that to “cry beef” was to give a camouflaging alarm. Due to widespread poverty, London had a vast number of thieves, and the poor usually stuck together by drowning out somebody’s cry of “Stop, thief!” with loud repetitions of “Hot beef,” to confuse passersby and allow the thief to get away. Obviously the one who had a beef was the victim.
Nowadays to beef is also a verb—to complain (or, in an animal vein, to bitch or carp or grouse).
If there’s a bone to pick, there are usually two dogs fighting over it. Sometimes three, keeping in mind the old saying that when two dogs fight for a bone, a third often runs away with it. By the early 1700s, an unsettled dispute was often labeled a bone of contention.
The phrase to “make no bones about something,” from the mid 1500s, has a culinary origin. It means getting to the point right away, minus hesitation or restraint. As with a bowl of soup where the bones have been removed, since back then—and in many countries today—the soup bowl included meat bones. Once the bones are removed, the soup can be eat
en or swallowed right away, without restraint.
Maverick
Samuel A. Maverick (1803–70) was a Texan cattle-owner who asseverated that he wouldn’t brand his calves because it was a cruel practice. So a yearling or any calf that could be separated from its mother became known as a maverick. Of course the non-practice allowed Maverick to claim any unbranded calves he found on the range. . . .
In time a maverick—not branded, thus non-affiliated—came to mean a man unwilling to affiliate with any one political party. The term later expanded to denote a person who’s independent-minded, defiantly individual, or unorthodox.
Beef. . .
Besides being a euphemism for the flesh of a cow, bull, or ox, beef has long signified robust or having substance. Hence a beef tomato or beefsteak tomato is especially large and firm. Beefy means muscular, large, powerful. To beef something up is to give it more substance or strength.
Beef tea is a hot drink made with beef extract, often medicinal.
Beefwood is a hardwood tropical tree with close-grained red wood.
A Beefeater is a Yeoman Warder or Yeoman of the Guard at the Tower of London. The name heralds back to their traditional beef rations, which were bigger than most; originally beefeater was contemptuous slang for a well-fed servant.
Beef Wellington, created to honor Britain’s naval hero, is beef encased in pâté and enveloped in puff pastry.
Beefalo is a hybrid of cattle and buffalo.
Beefsteak fungus is a reddish-brown bracket fungus, forming shelflike projections from the trunks of trees, that actually resembles raw beef.
Patterned after cheesecake, beefcake is of recent derivation; each refers to sexy eye candy. Why beef, when most beef comes from cows? One reason is “bullcake” doesn’t sound right and is negatively linked to bullsh*t. Also, beefcake sounds better than porkcake or chickencake, etc., and beercake wouldn’t make sense.
Classic Cows
Up until modern times, most cultures considered it a compliment to tell a female she had cow eyes. In ancient Greece “cow-eyed” was used to describe Hera, the wife of Zeus, king of the gods. As a prime source of wealth, cows were a highly prized dowry in marital arrangements. Daughters were sometimes given names that expressed bovine hopes, for instance Polyboea—she who has many cows—and Phereboia—she who will bring many cows into the marriage.
Holy Cow! Page 8