Distinctly Montana Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.distinctlymontana.com/i/726072
D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A • FA L L 2 0 1 6 58 Not heard so often these days, "in two shakes of a lamb's tail" meaning "right away, quickly," is something of a lin- guistic artifact of our agrarian past. But those who still raise sheep or live near them can fully appreciate the veracity of this expression. Lambs, every single one of them, vigorously wag and shake their tails while nursing. When lambs bury their heads in mama's wooly flanks, their caudal appendag- es nearly blur with enthusiasm. Literally, anything that can occur while a lamb's tail shakes twice will do so instantly. e Oxford English Dictionary's word watchers have traced the expression to 1858, when it appeared in the form "a couple of shakes of a sheep's tail." Mark Twain used "three shakes of a sheep's tail" in his 1884 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. "A whisk of a lamb's tail" was a variation recorded in 1901. roughout the 1900s, American English speakers dropped the ovine reference, resulting in such abbreviations as "half a shake," "a couple of shakes," "a brace of shakes," and "wait a shake." When we say we got a bit of news "straight from the horse's mouth," we mean that we consider the source of the information authoritative and reliable. is expression tempts us to find a story involving, say, a mythical talking equine whose every word is believable. But don't seek one, because it doesn't exist. Instead, look for a bit of old-fashioned horse- trading wisdom to support this American idiom, first attested in the 1920s. Idioms often make oblique references to cus- toms, observations, and even technologies that are antiquated or obscure. For example, not everyone knows that a horse's age and general health can be ascertained by looking at its teeth — the longer the tooth, the older the animal. is is implied in the expres- sion "straight from the horse's mouth." A horse trader might lie about the age of the animal he sells you, but the horse's mouth will reveal the truth. DEBRA DERR STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH TWO SHAKES OF A LAMB'S TAIL W I L D W E S T W OR DS W I L D W E S T W OR DS with CHRYSTI THE WORDSMITH D E PA R T M E N T H E R I TA G E www.distinctlymontana.com DISTINCTLY MONTANA | DIGITAL For more Wild West Words, see Chrysti in the Archives