English has many idiomatic phrases that refer to animals. There are certainly too many for one post. For this one, I picked four animals that each appear in two different phrases in my collection.

As it turns out, in most cases, experts are not certain about the phrase origin. In some cases, non-experts have put forth some truly unbelievable stories. They can be the most fun.

Cock and bull story

Surely you have heard plenty of unbelievable stories, especially when someone is making an excuse for annoying you. People who tell them expect others to believe them.  The Hungarian stories of Háry Jånos are delightful examples of such stories. People accuse politicians and criminal defendants of less delightful examples.

Stories like that have long been called “cock and bull” stories. But why? No one knows, really. The phrase has been around since the early 17^th century.

Some say that there were two inns, The Cock, and The Bull, at Stoney Stafford, a stopping place between London and Birmingham. Patrons traded such outrageous stories there that the two inns provided the name for them. That explanation sounds like a cock and bull story to me!

Others say that it is a rough translation of the French coq a l’âne, which is a story that gets garbled in repeated telling. But the real translation is cock to ass. Why would the English change ass to bull as well as the phrase’s meaning?

People have been telling stories with animal characters at least since the time of Aesop. Might there have at one time been so many stories told about a cock and a bull that cock and bull story became a generic name for them? But if that’s the case, a good-sized collection of them should have come down to us. Scholars have not located a single one.

Your choice which, if any, of these phrase origin stories to believe.

Bull in a china shop

If you own a shop that sells fine china, you would not welcome a bull for a customer. The bull would have no idea either how delicate or how valuable the merchandise is. Eventually, it would destroy much of it.

Aesop wrote a story about a donkey in a pottery shop. The concept has therefore been around for a very long time. The English phrase itself, however, first appeared in print in 1834 in Frederick Marryat’s novel Jacob’s Faithful. Political cartoonists have loved it ever since.

The elephant in the room

Many an issue is uncomfortable to talk about. The important topic no one wants to address is often called the elephant in the room.

In 1814, Russian poet and fabulist Ivan Krylof wrote a story called “The Inquisitive Man.” It describes someone who went to museum and noticed a multitude of small details but somehow failed to notice the elephant on display.

Apparently, however, the story was little known outside of Russia. The first use of the phrase in the US apparently appeared in the 1950s in the Charleston Gazette, where someone wrote, “Chicago, that’s an old Indian word meaning ‘get that elephant out of your room.’” That sounds like an inept attempt at humor. The phrase seems not to have turned up again until 1984 in the book title An elephant in the living room: a leader’s guide for helping children of alcoholics.From there, it quickly became a cliché.

White elephant

What used to be called a swap party is now often called a white-elephant party. People find an item around their home that they no longer want and wrap it as beautifully as possible. All the guests take turns selecting a gift and unwrapping it. The rules usually allow someone to steal a gift someone else has already opened. In this sense, then, a white elephant is something of no value to the owner but possibly valuable to someone else.

The origin of the phrase seems to be something more sinister. The story goes that in Siam (modern Thailand), pale-colored (white) elephants were considered sacred and so rare that if anyone found one, it immediately became the property of the king. The Siamese flag depicted a white elephant until 1917.

Being sacred, white elephants could not be put to work like other elephants, but being elephants, they ate a lot and needed intensive care. So if a Siamese king became displeased with someone, he gave the unfortunate person a white elephant. That is, he did not kill his adversary but instead gave a lavish gift that would bankrupt him.

Does that sound true? Or is it a cock and bull story?

Monkey business

At any zoo that has monkeys, the monkey exhibit is one of the most popular. They seem to be playing and having a good time, or at least, most of the time. Monkeys form strong relationships, whether as friends or enemies. In that regard, they have long memories.

Monkey friendships include playing games and grooming each other. Monkey rivalries can get violent. They have no apparent concept of personal property. A macaque once stole a camera and used it to take a selfie.

The term “monkeyshine” originated in colonial India in the 1830s, where it meant bad behavior. It quickly became “monkey tricks” or “monkey business” and traveled. We find it in the US not long afterward, where it was used to disparage slaves, but parents also used it to describe their children’s behavior.

Monkey business, depending on context, can therefore refer either to playful hijinks or deceitful behavior. Most often, it has a negative connotation.

Monkey suit

A monkey suit is cheeky slang for a tuxedo, right? Well, yes, but the phrase turns out to mean more than that. Of course, in the 1968 movie Planet of the Apes, some of the actors wore monkey suits to look like apes, but maybe that’s too literal.

In late 19th century Britain, monkey was a slang term for child, and monkey suit meant some kind of children’s clothing. The earliest attestation I have found for that meaning is 1876. The earliest use of the term I have seen in reference a tuxedo is 1920. But I have seen it referring to a baseball uniform in 1914. So apparently, monkey suit can relate to any uniform or, for that matter, anything really formal.

Where did the phrase come from? One common explanation is that organ grinders used trained monkeys, and tuxedos reminded someone of the costumes the monkeys wore, but actually, the monkeys wore red suits. And organ grinders’ monkeys don’t explain children’s clothing or baseball uniforms being called monkey suits.

Hold your horses

The closest most of us come to horses these days is that the power of our cars is measured in horsepower. Before the automobile, people rode horses. Horse-drawn carts served both for transportation and for moving goods. Whether riding the horse or using it as a beast of burden, someone held on to reins to control the horses’ speed and direction—hold the horse. Long before that, war horses, with reins, went into battle either carrying a rider or pulling a chariot.

One thing hasn’t changed. Whether using horses or motor vehicles, some people drive carelessly and too fast. And, of course, rushing into something rashly doesn’t require the use of a horse or car.

No wonder, then, that hold your horses became a metaphor for slowing down and exercising patience. Homer used the phrase regarding a chariot race, but he meant it literally. The modern figurative usage started in the US in the middle of the 19th century. I haven’t found a good story or the first occurrence in print.

Charley horse

Have you ever had a sudden leg cramp? It can be painful and make ordinary movement impossible until it goes away. You don’t have to be doing anything to get one. They can wake you up in the middle of the night from a sound.sleep. We call that kind of cramp a charley horse. Not charlie horse. Charley horse. It doesn’t have to make sense. We’re talking about English spelling.

Where did the phrase come from? Would you believe King Charles I of England instituted a police force in London and then failed to provide horses? According to this story, the police on foot developed leg cramps they called Charley’s horses.

A charming cock and bull story, but don’t believe it. I saw it in print, and that’s what reminded me to do another post on phrase origins, but not a single one of the online sources I rely on mentions it. In fact, it appears that the British simply say “leg cramp.” Charley horse is American usage.

The phrase seems to have originated in the 1880s. Other than that, there is little agreement on just what it refers to. According to one story, a baseball pitcher named Charley and nicknamed Old Hoss suffered a leg cramp in a game in 1880, but the claim first appeared in the Washington Post in 1907.

Baseball groundskeepers used horses to help maintain the diamond. Another story of the phrase origin asserts that the Chicago White Sox groundskeepers had an old horse named Charley who went lame one day while working. Or perhaps Charley was an unfortunate racehorse.