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Re: Baaaah!Posted by R. Berg on October 30, 2002 In Reply to: Re: Baaaah! posted by James Briggs on October 29, 2002 : : : : As some of you will know, I have a site where I've posted origins of as many phrases as I can find. I get regular questions from around the world, plus suggestions about origins - I've posted some of these recently. I thought you would all be interested in the following message that came today. : : : : "I came across
your site while looking up an expression that I heard this weekend at Churchill
Downs in Louisville, USA. On a behind-the-scenes tour of the track, our guide
pointed out a goat tied to a stable door next to a thoroughbred. She explained
the goat was present as a companion to an otherwise anxious horse visiting a new
stable. She said the expression "to get one's goat" derived from the dastardly
practice of a rival trainer stealing the opposing horse's goat and unnerving him
before the big race. ....I thought it was bunk, but decided to research it when
I got home. : : : Wasn't there a sheep in a similar role on the Sopranos a few weeks back? : : That explanation of "get your goat" has turned up here before and been discounted. See http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/3/messages/432.html (link below). : I guess that you think the 'offering' from the race track is a wind up! I'm not so certain. I can see no good reason wht the fellow should target 'little ol me' with spam. I prefer to believe that he saw what he said he saw. Too trustworthy you say. Well maybe, but I always believe my patients/clients! I don't doubt that he saw a goat in the stable or that the tour guide gave the reported explanation of "get your goat." What I doubt is that the guide was necessarily correct about the origin of the phrase. Yesterday I had visited some goats, and the ones who said anything at all were saying "Baaaah!"
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