Unless you’re having a bad dream about equine creatures, a nightmare doesn’t have anything to do with horses. The mare in nightmare comes from an old word that means “goblin.” This is part of a complete episode.
The noun bangs, meaning “hair cut straight across the forehead,” may derive from the idea of the word bang meaning “abruptly,” as in a bangtail horse whose tail is trimmed straight across. The verb curtail, meaning to...
Choosing language that helps resolve interpersonal conflict. Sometimes a question is really just a veiled form of criticism and understanding the difference between “ask culture” and “guess culture” can help you know how to...
The word traces denotes the long, thin leather straps that secure a horse to a wagon. The expression to kick over the traces, meaning “to become unruly,” refers to the action of a horse literally kicking over those straps and getting all...
Brand names, children’s games, and the etiquette of phone conversations. Those clever plastic PEZ dispensers come in all shapes and sizes—but where did the word PEZ come from? The popular candy’s name is the product of wordplay involving...
Two familiar terms that have inspired lots of bogus etymologies are “dead ringer” and “spitting image.” “Dead ringer” probably comes from horse racing, where a ringer is a horse that may look like other horses in...