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stranger
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Recently, a senior academic at Sydney University was heard to say "I'm running around like a hairy goat". Now this could just be a Quirky Dude living up to his job description, but he insisted this was a genuine, established, if possibly archaic expression. The Linguistics Department at another university is stumped. Any ideas, folks?
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Joined: Sep 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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In the Old Testament, the original Hebrew refers to a male goat as a hairy goat (as opposed to the female goat). The scape goat onto whom the sins of the whole people were put on the Day of Atonement was always a male goat. It was driven out into the desert to die. Thus, I opine, that to run around like a hairy goat is to run around like the scapegoat in the desert, trying not to be killed by wild beasts.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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hircine - like a goat; having a goatish smell hirsute - hairy; shaggy coincidence? maybe...  oh, and here's a citation from the OED which will probably just muddy the waters:
1960 G. Slatter Gun in my Hand ii. 21 An' it ran like a hairy goat an' I did me chips.
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addict
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addict
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 460 |
Hi Slice -- welcome to the board.
Sidney Baker's "The drum" (1959) has:
hairy goat, run like a (used esp. of racehorses): To perform badly in a race.
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addict
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addict
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paulb found: hairy goat, run like a (used esp. of racehorses): To perform badly in a race.Maybe all the hair makes for really bad aerodynamics? 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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hairodynamicsThanks, mav. Nice to see that someone is keeping the flame alive in TEd's absence. In my hubris I seem to have taken it upon myself in recent days to bring things together. I wish to continue this by bringing together this "hairy goat" thread with the "cognomen" thread. I have a question for our Latin scholars. Almost a quarter of a century ago, I read Robert Graves' "I, Claudius" and "Claudius the God". One of the few things to stick with me was some prophecy an oracle uttered, which centred around "Caesar" meaning "hairy one". Is this true? Is "Caesar" derived from some Latin word for hairy? Or was Bob just acting the goat?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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max, what is this? you have come to harry Caesar and not to praise him??
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Carpal Tunnel
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