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Jan 7, 2008

This week's theme
Whose what? (animal edition)

This week's words
mare's nest
dog's letter
sheep's eyes
donkey's years
cat's paw

Previous week’s theme
Newly coined words

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The English language is filled with everyday terms based on animals, from the lion's share (largest part) to the dog's chance (slim chance) and the snail's pace (very slow) but there are many unusual terms too. For this week's parade we have selected five mammals: a mare, a dog, a sheep, a donkey, and a cat.

mare's nest

noun
1. A confused mess.
2. A hoax or an illusory discovery.

[The original sense of the term was a false discovery since clearly a mare doesn't have a nest. Nowadays the term implies a confused situation. A term with a similar origin is the Greek calends meaning a time that doesn't exist.]

"The previous two sheets of this piece are a mare's nest of scratched out half sentences, words replaced and replaced again and clauses arrowed in or arrowed out."
Gary Covington; Learning to Write; Sun Star (Philippines); Dec 30, 2007.

See more usage examples of mare's nest in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

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