A.Word.A.Day --horse-and-buggy

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Nov 9, 2009

This week's theme
Words with horse-related origins

This week's words
horse-and-buggy
horse latitudes
stalking horse
hobbyhorse
Trojan horse

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

It's a sign of our historical dependence on horses that our language is filled with terms, idioms, and other references about them. When the locomotive came out, it was called an iron horse. And when the automobile was invented, it was named a horseless carriage.

Today, we use many horse-related terms metaphorically, from horse-trading (hard bargaining) to horse sense (common sense). A political candidate might turn out to be a dark horse (someone little known who gains unexpected support). One might change horses in midstream (to change opinion in the middle of action) or ride two horses (have two allegiances or follow two courses).

This week we'll look at five terms related to horses.

horse-and-buggy

PRONUNCIATION:

(HORS-uhn-BUG-ee)

MEANING:

adjective: Old-fashioned; outdated.

ETYMOLOGY:

Referring to the era before the invention of the automobile, when people often traveled in horse-drawn buggies.

USAGE:

"'You can't continue to run a space-age company with horse-and-buggy methods,' said Angelo Rosati."
Gina Thackara; Business Lessons Basic to Survival; Scranton Times (Pennsylvania); Oct 2, 1996.

See more usage examples of horse-and-buggy in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Don't surrender your loneliness / So quickly. / Let it cut more deeply. / Let it ferment and season you / As few human / Or even divine ingredients can. -Hafez, poet (1315-1390)

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