Читать книгу Bees Knees and Barmy Armies - Origins of the Words and Phrases we Use Every Day - Harry Oliver - Страница 29

If you’re told to ‘hold your horses’ you’re being advised to wait, hold on a moment, exercise a little patience. The phrase dates back to nineteenth-century America, first appearing as the rurally inflected ‘hold your hosses’. Originally rooted in a literal instruction to a horserider to hold steady to stop the animal getting too excited, it soon became used as a more general piece of advice not to become agitated oneself. The first such recorded instance occurred in 1844, when it was employed in an attempt to placate someone on the verge of losing their temper.