Etymology of “A Horse Apiece”

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Sarah from Casper, Wyoming.

Hi, Sarah. Welcome to the show. How are you doing?

What’s going on?

Well, I was wondering if you guys could shed a little light on the meaning or the origin of the phrase, a horse apiece.

I’m from Wisconsin, from the Green Bay area, and I grew up hearing that all the time.

So, like, if someone asked if you liked the blue one or the green one and you didn’t care, you’d say, it’s a horse apiece.

You know, like, it doesn’t matter.

I thought everybody said it.

So I went to visit my old roommate who had moved to Denver, Colorado,

And I said it, I don’t know, just in conversation,

And her roommate was like, oh, my gosh,

I never thought I’d meet two people who said that.

Like, she’d never heard it before.

Oh, really?

So I started asking people here in Wyoming, like my coworkers, like my friends.

Nobody’s ever heard it.

My boyfriend’s from Nebraska.

He’s never heard it either.

Where do you think you picked it up?

Wisconsin.

Yeah, yeah.

That’s like, I guess everybody says it.

I’ve heard it my whole life.

Yeah, and it basically means six of one, half a dozen of the other, right?

Yeah, exactly.

It probably comes to us from dice gambling.

So there are some different games that you play.

Yeah, but if you’ve got a couple people playing where you want to do the best two out of three,

And if the first two throws result in a tie, like you have the same roll each time,

Then you’re said to have a horse apiece.

Or you said to have a horse and a horse.

Yeah, there’s a dice game called horse.

Yeah, we don’t know.

Yeah, there’s a wide variety of games that might use this phraseology.

And now you’ve got to remember, we have a lot of stuff embedded in English that goes back to a gambling culture.

Tons of this stuff.

We don’t need to get into it now.

But this is just one of those many things, a little less obvious, that probably comes ultimately from dice gambling.

So was that a game then that would only have been played in that area?

Who knows?

We know that the term a horse of peace and a horse and a horse was used in dice gambling in the U.K.,

So it probably was more widespread at one time and simply stuck in a particular part of the country among a particular people

And probably has nothing to do with who they are or where they’re from.

Yeah. Well, I really associate it with Wisconsin.

You do, yeah.

I feel like we get to know every single week about this.

We get a number of emails and calls from it.

From Wisconsin, yeah.

We’ve got our own little language up there, huh?

That’s right.

As a matter of fact, Wisconsin is worth a lot more study.

Well, cool, Sarah.

I hope we’re able to help you a little bit.

Don’t feel strange saying it, by the way.

You sound just a little embarrassed, but go forth.

Do it.

Own it.

I do.

I do say it, actually.

And my coworker, she said she’s been saying it ever since I told her about it.

She’s trying to get it caught on around here.

You’re a vector.

You’re a vector of a horse of peas.

Patient zero for spreading horse of peas.

Evangelist.

Sarah, take care of yourself, all right?

Yeah, thank you guys so much.

Cheers, bye.

Bye-bye.

All right, bye.

This is the show about language and how we use it.

We’ll take your questions about anything having to do with language.

877-929-9673.

Email words@waywordradio.org.