The phrase “Never look a gift horse in the mouth”
In: Other
Can tell the health of a horse by its teeth. Someone gives you a gift horse, don’t nitpick it. Even if it’s not the greatest horse, it’s a free horse.
This always confused me because I hear “gift horse” and my mind goes to Trojan horse and they definitely should have looked in the mouth of that horse.
But the teeth/health correlation makes alot more sense.
People can judge the age/quality of a horse by looking at its mouth. If you were going to buy a horse, you would want to check there to make sure the horse has the qualities you think you’re paying for.
The idea is that, if someone is giving you a horse for free, it shouldn’t really matter what qualities that horse has (assuming you are interested in owning a horse at all). Trying to assess its value, particularly right in front of the giver, is kind of like getting a gift and asking “How much did this cost?”. It can come across as rude or ungrateful.
I’ve always had a big issue with this saying. if you don’t look the gift horse in the mouth, how can you tell if there is a squad of Greek soldiers hiding within, waiting for you to bring the horse within your safe, siege proof walls.
Judging age and it being rude to question a gift.
That being said, as someone who owns horses, fuck that. There’s no such thing as a free horse. Horses eat money. If you try to give me a horse I am absolutely checking that thing out head to toe.
Keep in mind that before the invention of the automobile (and even for decades after), horses were extremely more prevalent than they are today. People bought and sold horses in immense numbers. And the health of the horse was vital as they were too expensive to be considered “expendable”. So everyone knew to check the health of the horse before purchasing one.
However, if you were “gifted” a horse, it would be kind of rude to check the health of the horse in front of the person giving it to you. Hence the phrase “Never look a gift horse in the mouth” was implying that if someone gifts you something, be polite.
Surprised nobody has mentioned this yet: You would look a horse in the mouth to somewhat determine its age, as their gums recede as they get older. This instance is also the origin of the phrase “Long in the tooth” to refer to being old.
Latest Answers