"Look a (gift) horse in the mouth"

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Mon Mar 11 01:18:14 UTC 2013


At 3/10/2013 06:22 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

>On Sun, Mar 10, 2013 at 3:31 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> > Really?  Doesn't one also look a gift horse in the mouth to
> determine what it's worth -- its
> > age, health?
>
>That's not Larry's point.

You're right -- it wasn't Larry's point.  It was Victor's I was questioning.

>He's saying that, to him, heretofore, the
>quintessential "gift horse" has been the Trojan horse - why is it
>called that and not the "*Greek* horse," I've always wondered? - and
>there was every reason to have examined that "gift horse" closely
>before accepting it and not  that, in his opinion, there's no other
>reason to look a gift horse in the mouth.

I have no problem with the Trojan Horse being the original that
someone should have looked in the teeth of, other than I was looking
for a quotation in English.

Joel

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list