A horse is a horse, of course of course, and apparently there are a lot of hippophiles out there! A lover of hippos? No, in Greek, hippo means horse, not hippopotamus. In fact, the word hippopotamus is Greek, too, and it means river horse.
A few weeks ago, I sent out a post about ponies. Several of you sent me some additional idioms involving horses—in fact, you sent enough of them for two more days of neigh-sayings. Here is part two.
The following idioms and definitions are from The Free Dictionary:
- Get back on the horse (that bucked you)
To return to or resume an activity that one has previously failed at, had difficulty with, or which has previously caused one harm. [KC – I can’t say I’ve ever heard the second part. Probably because if a horse bucked me off, I wouldn’t stick around to have it happen again!]
- pony up (something) To pay the amount of money that is owed or due for something. (Usually used to reference something that is excessively or unreasonably expensive.)
- horsefeathers
n. (used with a sing. verb)
Nonsense; foolishness.
interj.
Used to express disagreement or exasperation.
Interested in charley horses, changing horses in midstream, and dark horses? There are a ton of other idioms here: https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/horse. Tomorrow, a horse of a different color!
Kara Church
Technical Editor, Advisory
Symitar Documentation Services
Editor's Corner 
Leave a Reply