Shank's mare

Mark Mandel thnidu at GMAIL.COM
Wed Jan 16 21:31:50 UTC 2008


FWIW, I had. I don't know if I heard it or read it, probably the latter, but
I adopted it for occasional use.

Google Books has DARE. A Google search for

> "shank's mare" "Dictionary of American Regional English"

brings it up.

I mentally categorize it with "Adam's ale", meaning water... except that
that can nowadays be confused with products of the Samuel Adams brewing
company, which I am fond of.

Mark Mandel

On Jan 16, 2008 3:13 PM, Scot LaFaive <scotlafaive at gmail.com> wrote:

> The Merriam-Webster word of the day for Jan. 16 is "shank's mare."
> According
> to MW it's been around at least since the 17th century. I can't check
> DARE,
> but I'm mildly curious if it is or was a regionalism in the U.S.
> Personally,
> I had never heard of this name for one's own legs before today.
>
> Scot

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