Things you were shockingly old when you learned

It always takes me a moment to remember that it has nothing to do with fearing Greeks bearing gifts, because that gift was a horse (albeit one that should have been inspected closely)

^this

& gives us the adage beware of Greeks bearing gifts

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Laocoon_Pio-Clementino_Inv1059-1064-1067.jpg/1024px-Laocoon_Pio-Clementino_Inv1059-1064-1067.jpg

shockingly old when i learned that this guy^^^ is the one who coined the adage in question and this^^^ is the thanks he got (being strangled by snakes along with his sons, who did nothing wrong that i can see) (and nor did he! he was right!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz7u-9ZHOgE

“Never look a gift horse in the mouth”

Up until like 10yrs ago I thought a gift-horse was a thing - a horse that has gifts coming out of its mouth. You shouldn’t look in its mouth because you don’t really wanna see where those gifts are coming from. Idk I didn’t give this concept any thought. That was my first interpretation of it and I just never questioned it. I finally had a light bulb moment while reading a novel that was horse-info heavy.

I just can’t believe that everyone just knows the whole checking horses’ mouth thing unless you’re a horse person?!

― just1n3, Sunday, June 18, 2023 4:00 AM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

when people make posts like this, they need to explain their understanding of the new, correct interpretation! let's get it together, folks! same goes for the pun thread.

this guy^^^

Laocoön: one of the hardest pronunciations for me to remember. at some point i will be shockingly old when i don't have to look it up for the 80th time.

(it's lay-AHK-uh-wan)

It always takes me a moment to remember that it has nothing to do with fearing Greeks bearing gifts, because that gift was a horse (albeit one that _should_ have been inspected closely)

Dudley Moore's father was from Glasgow.

Is that... a thing people should already know?

I think a portion of this thread long devolved into "interesting facts I found on the internet"...

Xps I’m not entirely sure since I’m not a horse person, but I guess the first thing you do when you’re looking to buy a horse is check their mouth as a way to check their health, so you don’t buy a dud.

If a horse is gifted to you, you shouldn’t check it’s mouth because who cares, it’s free, just take it.

Yeah thats how I always read that saying!

there is possibility of cost of upkeep being higher than worth/usability.
& a dodgy donor giving away a useless waste of space which you are supposed to think cannot be happening because of altruism of donor etc.
& you have been given a living thing that you are expected to look after.

I have been reminded of the idea that the public conception of things that make up metaphors is frequently totally disparate from the reality of the actuality of the situations described. That a lot of the world narrative that is constructed by popular sayings is purely fictive and largely misrepresentative, like.

iirc you can tell a horses age quickly and reliably with a dental check, theyre like the aristocracy that way

Yes, it's about the age of the horse.

its because its better to get a younger horse than an older one, even as a gift

but it would probably be bad manners to inspect that in front of someone who had offered you a gift of a horse, a 'gift horse' if u will

xp to put that another way, the mores of a society being based on a set of sayings that set up an ideal that is very different to the actuality of how the things described actually act. But set up a set of ideals for 'proper' behaviour.

Not sure if anybody does check a gift to see if it is worth keeping. pros vs cons etc. Have heard of a number of Xmas gifts continually being rewrapped and passed onto another person on an I need to give them a gift of some sort rather than I want to give them a gift which I'll spend time thinking about and make sure its something they want or is something they don't yet know they want or something along those lines.Obligation gift rather than one done consciously.

I always thought the gift horse mouth thing was because of the trojan horse even though I had a horse and knew about the teeth thing.

I think we're all just thrown by the gift horse formulation. I mean, you don't say … "gift socks" do you? Maybe people used to.

I'm going to start saying "Don't look a horse gift in the mouth" for clarity.

"Don't look at a horsey present's mouth"

I have been reminded of the idea that the public conception of things that make up metaphors is frequently totally disparate from the reality of the actuality of the situations described. That a lot of the world narrative that is constructed by popular sayings is purely fictive and largely misrepresentative, like.

Popular example being cop defenders talking about “a few bad apples” apparently unaware that the expression they are paraphrasing is “one bad apple spoils the barrel” so they are unwittingly making the opposite point to the one they think they’re making

I mean, you don't say … "gift socks" do you?

My sister bought me gift socks a few years ago, thin beige socks with Abraham Lincoln and JFK on them.

I don't know what other socks they could be, certainly not the type you wear on your feet in public.

OK but that's taking gift as a descriptor of a type of sock (I'd call it a novelty sock) rather than just the quality of having been given. I don't think there's a particular kind of horse that is implied by "gift horse".

Modern translation: Don't look a free car in the odometer.

(xp) Apart from one that's been given as a gift you mean?

Yes

grift horses are all veneers don't be fooled. look in goodnhard in thar, pard

i think there's also an element of - and this will be societal and therefore perhaps open to different interpretations - the importance of the 'mouth' aspect, not all horsetrading societies would necessarily inspect the teeth as the first site of equestrian health or value - many would ofc inspect the withers or the gait, for instance

in this regard it may be posited that the focus on the oral orifice takes on a pointed- dare we say freudian?- aspect

Wait, I thought it was "One bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch (girl)."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30Cxl5bVmVU

PSA: Tyrone Power is not pronounced “Tie-rown”. It’s pronounced as one syllable, “TROWN”. It’s a subtle difference, but my respect for those who pronounce his name correctly knows no bounds. pic.twitter.com/79jBrSqHbm

— Samantha Ellis 💕 (@classicfilmgeek) June 19, 2023

PSA: Tyrone Power is not pronounced “Tie-rown”. It’s pronounced as one syllable, “TROWN”. It’s a subtle difference, but my respect for those who pronounce his name correctly knows no bounds. pic.twitter.com/79jBrSqHbm

— Samantha Ellis 💕 (@classicfilmgeek) June 19, 2023

The horse teeth thing is about the their age, not general health. They have broad flat teeth that grind, over time they wear down.

Think of it as “don’t look at the odometer if someone is giving you a free car.”

too simplistic

there must be more

no, i'm pretty sure it's the opposite: the teeth grow and protrude more over the years. hence somebody who is advanced in age is said to be long in the tooth.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/don%27t_look_a_gift_horse_in_the_mouth

thats a common misconception iirc, and somewhat of a retrofit

the phrase is actually traced most reliably back to the seafaring peoples of the volga trade routes: sove, dvs der im en gammel hest

― Dan Worsley, Monday, 19 June 2023 22:33 (eighteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

tyrone by this

buts lets be real, the word to use here is mispronounced tbf

I learned something new today about horsey teeth!

I always assumed “long in the tooth” had something to do with rodents teeth. If a rabbit doesn’t have something to gnaw on, their teeth will grow so long they can’t close their mouths or eat.

But the horse thing makes more sense.

thats a common misconception iirc, and somewhat of a retrofit

the phrase is actually traced most reliably back to the seafaring peoples of the volga trade routes: sove, dvs der im en gammel hest

― Ár an broc a mhic (darraghmac), Monday, June 19, 2023 5:52 PM (twenty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

you need to cite your sources

cards on table, the day i code and host a mock website as a source in order to underpin a classic ilx reference as a meta comment on how a discussion has unnecessarily grown quite ridiculous legs, that's the day i know the free time has reached a dangerous level altogether*

*i considered it

...I thought "long in the tooth" was a reference to receding gums?

Can we just maybe quantify how often you get given a horse? Not that often.

Being given a car (while perhaps more comprehensible) seems about as rare.

If you have a though time thinking about how often someone has an extra horse and just fuckin decides to give it to you?

Imagine how many times in your life you have had a few too many cars, and the most sensible course of action is to give one or two away.

*tough time

The sentiment is perhaps better described in my father's favorite saying: "If it's free, it's for me."

My mum gave me her old car as a surprise gift a few years ago. Because the car was really pretty old and well used (100,000+ miles on the odometer at the time) there did in fact ensue a number of joking gift horse/car conversations between us in regard to tax, insurance, MOT and repair costs, as well as how it was to drive, especially at anything over 50mph.

Ok, one car, cool.

Is there anybody here who has been given a horse?

Or given someone a horse (presumably one of their extra horses)?

Trone Poor, i think you'll find.