2006-12-21 01:48:48 · 17 answers · asked by i'myours 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Etiquette
It means: Don't be ungrateful when you receive a gift.
As horses age their teeth begin to project further forward each year and so their age can be estimated by checking how prominent the teeth are. This incidentally is also the source of another teeth/age related phrase - long in the tooth.
The advice given in the 'don't look...' proverb is: when given a present, be grateful for your good fortune and don't look for more by examining it to assess its value.
As with most proverbs the origin is ancient and unknown. We have some clues with this one however. The phrase was originally "don't look a given horse in the mouth" and first appears in print in 1546 in John Heywood's A dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the prouerbes in the Englishe tongue, where he gives it as:
"No man ought to looke a geuen hors in the mouth."
2006-12-21 01:52:51 · answer #1 · answered by mcfifi 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Any decent breeder could tell you that one of the best ways to judge a horse is to look in its mouth. By counting its teeth, noting the extent to which the gums have receded, etc., you can get an idea of the horses's age and physical condition. However, if you got the horse as a gift--equivalent to being given a car nowadays--checking its teeth would suggest you're secretly thinking, "I'll be lucky if this nag lives until St. Swithin's Day." You simply say "thanks" and save all recriminations until you get home. This same practice gives us the now obsolete phrase "long in the tooth," a nice way of saying "old."
2006-12-21 01:55:26 · answer #2 · answered by idgogay4shane 1 · 2⤊ 0⤋
When buying a horse, it is customary to look at it's teeth to tell how old it is. This would be rude if the horse was given as a gift, hence the saying...
2006-12-21 02:02:38 · answer #3 · answered by ammonite132 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
When you buy a horse you check its hoofs and mouth to see if it is healthy and so you can judge its age.
It is rude to think somebody would give you a gift that is not good quality so you should not look a gift horse in the mouth and should just trust that it is young and healthy
2006-12-21 01:52:25 · answer #4 · answered by idtshadow 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Looking at a horse's teeth is a way of judging its overall health. The phrase is an admonition that "Hey, it's free, don't look for its faults, just be glad you were given something in the first place."
2006-12-21 01:54:12 · answer #5 · answered by Emmaean 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
you can tell a horses age ( and hence its value ) from examining it's teeth. But If someone GAVE you the horse as a gift, you shouldn't worry how old it is.
2006-12-21 01:50:59 · answer #6 · answered by Not Ecky Boy 6 · 7⤊ 0⤋
Horses teeth. If you are given a horse, don't look in his mouth
2006-12-21 01:54:42 · answer #7 · answered by Scotty 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Never look it in the mouth because it may bite your head off! Gift horses are stand ins incase rudolph or his buddies get sick.
2006-12-21 02:04:17 · answer #8 · answered by bumbleboi 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
if you want to really know how sound a horse is, you need to look at its teeth, its tongue, the smell of its breath etc.
if someone gave you a horse and you opened its mouth and started examining its teeth, it'd be pretty much saying
"well, i don't really know if i want it, it's a bit unhealthy, its breath smells a bit..." and so on and so forth.
2006-12-21 01:51:59 · answer #9 · answered by lillianna 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
a horses age is determined by looking at his teeth, if you are given a horse as a prezzie it would be rude to look and discover it is a old nag
2006-12-21 01:51:55 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋