Hold your horses
Encyclopedia
"Hold your horses", sometimes said as "Hold the horses", is a common idiom
to mean "hold on" or wait, which is believed to have originated in the United States of America in the 19th century and is historically related to horse riding, or driving a horse-drawn vehicle
.
If someone tells you to hold your horses, you are doing something too fast and they would like you to slow down.
ORIGINS states these origins:
Idiom
Idiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made...
to mean "hold on" or wait, which is believed to have originated in the United States of America in the 19th century and is historically related to horse riding, or driving a horse-drawn vehicle
Horse-drawn vehicle
A horse-drawn vehicle is a mechanized piece of equipment pulled by one horse or by a team of horses. These vehicles typically had two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers and/or a load...
.
Use
The saying is typically used when someone is rushing into something. It is often combined with linked idioms such as, cool your jets, or look before you leap. However it also has a more literal meaning and in certain circumstances is the preferred idiom to use. "Hold your horses" literally means to keep your horse (or horses) still, which would be used when horse riding, or driving a horse-drawn vehicle. Thus it is very easy for someone without previously hearing the expression to understand its meaning. Someone is to wait for a moment. It is usually followed up with an explanation to demonstrate why they should wait. For example, "Hold your horses, you haven't thought about this yet."If someone tells you to hold your horses, you are doing something too fast and they would like you to slow down.
ORIGINS states these origins:
- The term originated from the artilleryArtilleryOriginally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
. British soldiers stood behind their artillery. When asked by an American consultant he was told they always did it that way. Some checking revealed that when the cannon was fired the horses bolted and ran off, thus, "hold your horses" was forever set forth. - It is found in Book XXIII of Homer's IliadIliadThe Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
(lines 425-6) at Patroclus' funeral games: "...the son of AtreusAtreusIn Greek mythology, Atreus was a king of Mycenae, the son of Pelops and Hippodamia, and the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus. Collectively, his descendants are known as Atreidai or Atreidae....
was frightened and called aloud to Antilochos: 'Antilochus, you drive/ride [your] horses recklessly. ἄνεχ' ἴππους (= Hold in [your] horses)."; but this refers literally (to chariotChariotThe chariot is a type of horse carriage used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Ox carts, proto-chariots, were built by the Proto-Indo-Europeans and also built in Mesopotamia as early as 3000 BC. The original horse chariot was a fast, light, open, two wheeled...
horses), not the metaphorMetaphorA metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
ical meaning. - A 19th century USA origin: in keeping with its American origin, it originally was written as 'hold your hosses' and it appears in print that way many times from 1844 onwards. In Picayune (New Orleans) September 1844, we have: "Oh, hold your hosses, Squire. There's no use gettin' riled, no how."
- ("Hoss" is a US slang term for horse, which was certainly known by 1844, as in David Humphreys' The Yankey in England, 1815: "The boys..see a ghost in the form of a white hoss; and an Indian in every black stump."
- In Chatelaine, 1939, the modern spelling arises: "Hold your horses, dear."
- In 1943 there is a more descriptive use, in Hunt and Pringle's Service Slang: "Hold your horses, hold the job until further orders. (comes from the Artillery)"