Name: English Tutor Nick P Idioms (233) Straight From the Horse's Mouth
Uploaded: 2019-05-10T14:43:49.000Z
Duration: 4 min 2 s
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Hi  this is Tutor Nick  P and this is Idioms 233.The idiom today is straight from the

horse's mouth. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If someone gets

information straight from the horse's mouth.  it means it is directly from the

most reliable source or someone got information firsthand. So either way, then

we say you got you've got the information straight from the horse's

mouth.  All right. Let's continue. This idiom has the

same origin as another proverb we covered. Yeah.  I covered this one,  oh I

don't know maybe about four or five months ago at least. Where the the

proverb was don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Okay. The origin of both phrases is related to the old custom of inspecting

a horse's teeth to judge its age or health. That's why I come up ... we kind

of joked about that one. Like a lot of times when somebody gives you a present

you shouldn't really be inspecting the present and saying, \" huh what is this ? What did

you give me?  \" So the same idea originally came from that phrase. You know,  if you  ...if

someone was nice enough to give you a horse,  remember in the old days giving in

somebody horses like giving somebody a car today.

If somebody was nice enough to give you a horse you shouldn't complain about it,

But the way to check you know,  how healthy or how old the horse was you

opened and you looked in its mouth. And I forget all the details exactly but as

the horse ages,  I think some teeth actually kind of move forward and some

spread a little bit. And if you know enough you could really figure out

exactly how old they are, or sometimes how healthy they are. So both is

important. So that was the way you're getting it right from the horse's mouth.

So one,  you don't look a gift horse in the mouth meaning don't complain about

gifts that you got. You don't say uh ? How old is this horse ?  Whether you give me an

old horse a used horse. You don't do that.  You just say thank you very much for a

gift. But in this case,  it means this is where you got the

information from. Directly from that. All right. And then I've heard some others

say to that not only  is it inspecting it , but sometimes like to get the

information straight from the horse's mouth , sometimes they used to ask like

the guys that worked in the stable or took care of the horses about that

information. Because they would be the ones that would be inspecting the horse's

mouth. So I think this was to do with horse racing. If they wanted to gamble you

know,  somebody said they got a tip but maybe they got it straight from the

horse's mouth.  Maybe the person...  now of course it was not a

talking horse,  like the old TV show like I think it was called MR. Ed. But this

is actually from the person that takes care of the horses or looks at them they

would know how healthy they are or maybe even how old they are and that might

help a lot in deciding whether they could have a good chance to win or not.

All right. Anyway,  let's,  let's take a look a couple examples here. Example

number one. You can trust when I tell you.  I got it straight from

the horse's mouth. So you got it directly from the source that you needed it from.

Or number two. That business analyst claims you can trust his advice because

he has inside connections. And they told him they got it straight from the

horse's ... they got the information straight from the horse's mouth. Yeah.

Maybe they got it directly from the boss or the CEO or something like that. So

he's giving you advice to either buy or sell the stock. But anyway , so they're

saying they got that information straight from the horse's mouth. Anyway I

hope you got it. I hope it's clear. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.