Thoraiya DyerEat Like A Horse, Sweat Like A Pig
June 3rd 2008 01:58
Two of our favourite sayings, and yet, they are totally wrong. Where did they come from? Why do we use them?
In About.com’s idiomatic dictionary:
“Eat Like A Horse: Definition: eat a lot”
But who really eats the most for their size?
In warm-blooded animals, it comes down to temperature regulation and metabolic rate. The smaller you are, the more energy you will lose as heat.
If you don’t believe me, ask Stanford University ( Really Long Link ):
“To compare rates at which different animals use energy, scientists calculate for each the rate at which a resting animal under no stress consumes oxygen. That consumption is then used to calculate the basal metabolic rate, which is expressed as the number of kilocalories of energy used per kilogram of body weight, per hour.
Small birds have proportionately larger surfaces (through which heat is lost) in relation to their mass of metabolizing tissue than do large birds. A Bushtit can maintain a body temperature like a Tundra Swan's because it has such a higher basal metabolism (i.e., uses proportionately more energy).
Hummingbirds, with their tiny bodies and high levels of activity, have the highest metabolic rates of any animals -- roughly a dozen times that of a pigeon and a hundred times that of an elephant.
To maintain those rates, hummers have to consume about their weight in nectar daily. In fact, a warm-blooded animal can't be smaller than a hummer or a shrew. Further reduction in size would make it impossible for the creature to eat fast enough to maintain its body temperature.”
Really, we should use the saying “eat like a bird” for someone who is constantly stuffing their face, and “eat like a horse” for someone who, well, eats like a bird. Or, even better, a picky eater should be named after a cold blooded animal.
“My girlfriend eats like a lizard” would probably just confuse everyone, though.
Maybe "eat like a horse" could be reserved for instances like this:
(Cute photo taken from here: Really Long Link )
What about the sweating pig myth?
In idioms.thefreedictionary.com:
“sweat like a pig (informal): to sweat (= have liquid coming out of your skin) a lot. I was so nervous, I was sweating like a pig.”
But LiveScience ( Really Long Link ) confirms what we already suspected:
“Pigs do have a few sweat glands, but they're not very useful for temperature adjustment. When the mercury rises on the farm, Wilber wallows in cool water or mud, which has the same evaporation effect as sweating.”
Hang on. What’s this “a few sweat glands” business? Do they have sweat glands or not?
From the ABC online forum ( Really Long Link ):
“Sweat Gland: Either of two types of secretory skin glands occurring only in mammals.
The eccrine sweat gland, which is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system, regulates body temperature. When internal temperature rises, the eccrine glands secrete water to the skin surface, where heat is removed by evaporation. If eccrine glands are active over most of the body (as in horses, bears, and humans), they are major thermoregulatory devices. In other animals (dogs, cats, cattle, and sheep), they are active only on the pads of the paws or along the lip margins and may be entirely absent over the rest of the body; such animals often depend on panting for effective temperature control.
Smaller mammals, such as rodents, cannot endure dehydration and hence possess no eccrine glands at all.
Apocrine sweat glands, which are usually associated with hair follicles, continuously secrete a fatty sweat into the gland tubule. Emotional stress causes the tubule wall to contract, expelling the fatty secretion to the skin, where local bacteria break it down into odorous fatty acids. In human beings, apocrine glands are concentrated in the underarm and in genital regions; the glands are inactive until they are stimulated by hormonal changes in puberty. In other mammals, apocrine glands are more numerous.
Certain specialized glands, such as mammary glands, wax-secreting glands of the ear canal, and many mammalian scent glands, probably developed from modified apocrine glands.”
Ohio State University explains the discrepancy ( Really Long Link ), pointing out that while pigs have no eccrine sweat glands, they have apocrine glands.
So they can make fatty stinkiness, but no watery evaporative coolness, and perhaps that’s where the origin of the idiom lies.
Say the Night Owls ( Really Long Link ):
“From what I have been able to gather the origin of the expression `sweat like a pig,' meaning to sweat profusely, is unknown.
Since pigs don't have sweat glands, which would provide cooling by evaporation, they have to wallow in puddles and mud to cool off. For an appropriate simile `sweat like a horse' might be more accurate.
Speculation is that the idea that pigs sweat profusely could have derived from the fact that they smell, with the assumed cause being `sweat.'
The only information in any respectable sources that I could find was that the expression, along with `sweat like a bull' (and bulls do sweat), dates from the late 19th century (Cassell's Dictionary of Slang). In Palmatier's `Speaking of Animals - A Dictionary of Animals Metaphors," it is suggested that the `like a pig' may have evolved from the model of the older expression `bleed like a stuck pig' (17th century) - but that sounds a bit weak.
Some other `pig sweating' expressions according to Palmatier are `pig sweat' meaning beer (however, he may be one of the few people in the world that has heard of that one) and `sweat hog' (1970s and still in use) meaning 1) a difficult student singled out for special attention (the expression may have been coined in the TV series `Welcome Back Kotter') 2) an unattractive female 3) a promiscuous female.”
Interesting. And now I have a new insult up my sleeve.
Ahhh, the English language.
Stay tuned for “drink like a fish” and “pissed as a newt”.
In About.com’s idiomatic dictionary:
“Eat Like A Horse: Definition: eat a lot”
But who really eats the most for their size?
In warm-blooded animals, it comes down to temperature regulation and metabolic rate. The smaller you are, the more energy you will lose as heat.
If you don’t believe me, ask Stanford University ( Really Long Link ):
Small birds have proportionately larger surfaces (through which heat is lost) in relation to their mass of metabolizing tissue than do large birds. A Bushtit can maintain a body temperature like a Tundra Swan's because it has such a higher basal metabolism (i.e., uses proportionately more energy).
Hummingbirds, with their tiny bodies and high levels of activity, have the highest metabolic rates of any animals -- roughly a dozen times that of a pigeon and a hundred times that of an elephant.
To maintain those rates, hummers have to consume about their weight in nectar daily. In fact, a warm-blooded animal can't be smaller than a hummer or a shrew. Further reduction in size would make it impossible for the creature to eat fast enough to maintain its body temperature.”
Really, we should use the saying “eat like a bird” for someone who is constantly stuffing their face, and “eat like a horse” for someone who, well, eats like a bird. Or, even better, a picky eater should be named after a cold blooded animal.
“My girlfriend eats like a lizard” would probably just confuse everyone, though.
Maybe "eat like a horse" could be reserved for instances like this:
Finley eats grass
(Cute photo taken from here: Really Long Link )
What about the sweating pig myth?
In idioms.thefreedictionary.com:
“sweat like a pig (informal): to sweat (= have liquid coming out of your skin) a lot. I was so nervous, I was sweating like a pig.”
But LiveScience ( Really Long Link ) confirms what we already suspected:
“Pigs do have a few sweat glands, but they're not very useful for temperature adjustment. When the mercury rises on the farm, Wilber wallows in cool water or mud, which has the same evaporation effect as sweating.”
Hang on. What’s this “a few sweat glands” business? Do they have sweat glands or not?
From the ABC online forum ( Really Long Link ):
“Sweat Gland: Either of two types of secretory skin glands occurring only in mammals.
The eccrine sweat gland, which is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system, regulates body temperature. When internal temperature rises, the eccrine glands secrete water to the skin surface, where heat is removed by evaporation. If eccrine glands are active over most of the body (as in horses, bears, and humans), they are major thermoregulatory devices. In other animals (dogs, cats, cattle, and sheep), they are active only on the pads of the paws or along the lip margins and may be entirely absent over the rest of the body; such animals often depend on panting for effective temperature control.
Smaller mammals, such as rodents, cannot endure dehydration and hence possess no eccrine glands at all.
Apocrine sweat glands, which are usually associated with hair follicles, continuously secrete a fatty sweat into the gland tubule. Emotional stress causes the tubule wall to contract, expelling the fatty secretion to the skin, where local bacteria break it down into odorous fatty acids. In human beings, apocrine glands are concentrated in the underarm and in genital regions; the glands are inactive until they are stimulated by hormonal changes in puberty. In other mammals, apocrine glands are more numerous.
Certain specialized glands, such as mammary glands, wax-secreting glands of the ear canal, and many mammalian scent glands, probably developed from modified apocrine glands.”
Ohio State University explains the discrepancy ( Really Long Link ), pointing out that while pigs have no eccrine sweat glands, they have apocrine glands.
So they can make fatty stinkiness, but no watery evaporative coolness, and perhaps that’s where the origin of the idiom lies.
Say the Night Owls ( Really Long Link ):
“From what I have been able to gather the origin of the expression `sweat like a pig,' meaning to sweat profusely, is unknown.
Since pigs don't have sweat glands, which would provide cooling by evaporation, they have to wallow in puddles and mud to cool off. For an appropriate simile `sweat like a horse' might be more accurate.
Speculation is that the idea that pigs sweat profusely could have derived from the fact that they smell, with the assumed cause being `sweat.'
The only information in any respectable sources that I could find was that the expression, along with `sweat like a bull' (and bulls do sweat), dates from the late 19th century (Cassell's Dictionary of Slang). In Palmatier's `Speaking of Animals - A Dictionary of Animals Metaphors," it is suggested that the `like a pig' may have evolved from the model of the older expression `bleed like a stuck pig' (17th century) - but that sounds a bit weak.
Some other `pig sweating' expressions according to Palmatier are `pig sweat' meaning beer (however, he may be one of the few people in the world that has heard of that one) and `sweat hog' (1970s and still in use) meaning 1) a difficult student singled out for special attention (the expression may have been coined in the TV series `Welcome Back Kotter') 2) an unattractive female 3) a promiscuous female.”
Interesting. And now I have a new insult up my sleeve.
Ahhh, the English language.
Stay tuned for “drink like a fish” and “pissed as a newt”.
| 67 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
Comment by Cheryl J
Rhythmatism
Budget Centsability
Comment by Thoraiya Dyer
Demented World