get one's goat (1906)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Kid McCoy in 1908 wrote:
> I started out to "get his goat," so to speak, and I suc-
> ceeded only too well. Stewart was so frightened that
> he wouldn't fight.

Wilson Gray wrote:
> *Serious* semantic WAG, based on context: "render him gutless"?????

I think that analysis makes sense, WG. Doug has suggested that "get
his goat" meant to shake a person's confidence or rattle a person's
composure.

A goat can function as a good luck charm in some situations. Hence to
"get his goat" meant symbolically to "take his good luck charm".
Losing an ostensibly lucky goat causes a concomitant loss of
confidence. The phrase was used metaphorically.

The meaning of the phrase has shifted over the decades. Now "get one's
goat" means "to anger, annoy, or frustrate a person" according to
Dictionary.com (Random House Dictionary).

Garson


On Fri, Oct 3, 2014 at 8:20 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: get one's goat (1906)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Fri, Oct 3, 2014 at 1:51 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com
>> wrote:
>
>> I started out to"get his goat," so to speak, and I suc-
>> ceeded only too well. Stewart was so frightened that
>>
> he wouldn't fight.
>>
>
> *Serious* semantic WAG, based on context: "render him gutless"?????
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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