Brett's Two-Cents

When a person is upset, why do we say someone’s “got his goat”?     This saying means you’ve lost your temper or become angry enough to be distracted. It’s a term that comes from a horse trainer’s practice of putting a goat in a stall with a skittish racehorse to keep him calm before a big race. An opponent might arrange for the goat to be removed by a stable boy, which would upset the horse and its owner and so reduce their chances of winning.

Why is something useless and expensive called a “white elephant”? This term comes from ancient Siam, where no one but the king could own a rare and sacred albino elephant without royal consent. The cost of keeping any elephant, white or otherwise, was tremendous, and so when the king found displeasure with someone he would make him a gift of a white elephant, and because the animal was sacred and couldn’t be put to work, the cost of its upkeep would ruin the new owner.

Why are there “bulls” and “bears” in the stock market? An 18th century proverb mocks the man who “sells the bearskin before catching the bear.” A “bearskin speculator,” like the man in the proverb, sold what he didn’t yet own, hoping the price would drop by the time he had to pay for it. “Bulls” speculate, hoping the price will rise. The analogies come from a time when fights were staged between the two animals, in which a bear needed to pull the bull down, while the bull fought by lifting the bear with its horns.