Beating a dead gift horse in the mouth

[RoJoHen]

These are two expressions that I really just don't understand.

1) Beating a dead horse: I understand what it's supposed to be saying, but I want to know why you were beating the horse to begin with. I mean, were you beating the horse when it was alive? Are we horse murderers? I get that there's no point in beating the horse once it's dead, but why were you beating the horse at all?

2) Don't look a gift horse in the mouth: Um...why not? Where do the gift horses gifts come from? Does it vomit them out, in which case I think it's mouth is exactly where I want to be looking. Or does it poop them out, in which case looking at its mouth probably won't make a difference. Or is the gift horse just sensitive about its bad breath? Is it just an asshole that will bite your face?

And why horses in the first place? Is there some old folk tale about a magical Gift Horse? Where did this phrase come from?

 

[sojourner]

1. a dead horse is not going to run any faster if you beat it., hence, no point beating a dead horse.
2. The horse is a gift, it's free. Don't complain about free gifts. Back when horses were more common people would check the teeth before purchasing, sort of like kicking the tires on a car. It would be impolite to check the teeth on a horse given to you as a gift.

Before automobiles, horses were the major mode of transportation and much more commonly owned.

 

[RoJoHen]

Wow, I had both of those completely wrong.

Here I thought there was some magic horse flying around pretending it was Santa Claus and giving people gifts.

 

[Data Holmes]

You are actually getting hung up on these old expressions.


Beating a dead horse comes from using the whip/crop on horses to motivate them to move. Basically saying that doing something was useless.

The gift horse one, it comes from back in the day. You could tell the health of a horse by checking it's gums. Basically it was saying that if you are getting a horse as a gift, you don't embarrass the person giving the gift by checking the gums.

Edit to add:

Damn, sojourner beat me to it.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

And why horses in the first place?

I guess horses were valued and highly respected for their brute strength and speed, meaning that they could be extremely useful for transport, pulling heavy goods, riding freely, traversing rough terrain, going on hunts...

To insult or abuse a horse would be a heinous social taboo because of such a value, so you wouldn't turn down a free horse (you'd dishonour its previous owner, perhaps), nor would you want to beat a horse to death to get it to move faster (it's not only cruel but disrespectful).

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I never knew that about the gift horse. I actually assumed it was a reference to the Trojan Horse, which confused me, since you'd want to look that one in the mouth. Good to know that it actually makes more sense.

 

[sojourner]

Shocking, as I am posting from an old netbook sized laptop with a crusoe processor. running linux and it's still damned slow.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I never knew that about the gift horse. I actually assumed it was a reference to the Trojan Horse, which confused me, since you'd want to look that one in the mouth.

In that case, if you did look such a Trojan horse in the mouth, you might see a distinctly non-equine-looking helmet poking out.

 

[Daneel]

I never knew that about the gift horse. I actually assumed it was a reference to the Trojan Horse, which confused me, since you'd want to look that one in the mouth. Good to know that it actually makes more sense.

I thought the exact same thing! If the Trojans had actually looked their gift horse in the mouth, it could've saved them quite a bit of trouble.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. I don't know if it helps if it's a gift horse, but it could well be a dead one.

Too many cooks spoil the broth, and many hands make light work.

 

[Lindley]

...Never run with scissors?

 

[Middle Earther]

They used to beat horses to death when they outlived their usefulness in some places. The story is that Nietzsche totally lost it and went insane after seeing a horse being beaten to death - kinda the last straw for his sanity.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. I don't know if it helps if it's a gift horse, but it could well be a dead one.

Too many cooks spoil the broth, and many hands make light work.

Indeed - I once believed that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but then again "out of sight... out of mind..."

I've since learned that Absinthe makesh the fart grow stronger.

 

[Vendikarr]

I never knew that about the gift horse. I actually assumed it was a reference to the Trojan Horse, which confused me, since you'd want to look that one in the mouth. Good to know that it actually makes more sense.

I thought the exact same thing! If the Trojans had actually looked their gift horse in the mouth, it could've saved them quite a bit of trouble.

And this is now why we Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts.

 

[Scout101]

^indeed...

 

[K'Ehleyr]

...Never run with scissors?

Surely that would depend on which way they are facing

 

[gh4chiefs]

They used to beat horses to death when they outlived their usefulness in some places.

I'm sorry, but I've got see a source for that little tidbit. I

 

[RoJoHen]

I mean, I can see killing a horse if it's outlived its usefulness (back in the day, anyway), but there has to be a more efficient way to do it.

 

[gh4chiefs]

I mean, I can see killing a horse if it's outlived its usefulness (back in the day, anyway), but there has to be a more efficient way to do it.

Well I suppose by "beating" he could mean striking them on the head as opposed to beating their bodies over and over which was what I was imagining when I asked the question. Horses have, relatively speaking, soft skulls and and are more vulnurable to head trama than some animals.

 

[RoJoHen]

I guess I wouldn't call that "beating" either. Bludgeoning, maybe?