Two Wrongs Make a “Right”

Horse nonsense: Is the champ rearing to go?

Tai Le Grice recently wrote a piece (Tai, kindly send the link) in which I noted the expression “rearing to go,” which image derives from a horse standing on its hind legs prior to charging ahead.

I recall having seen and heard the phrase rendered as “raring to go,” and considering the meaning in context, I figured I must have been mistaken all the while. Therefore, I was puzzled when my Googling of “rearing” returned results “raring.”

Backstory

Regions of England and the American South pronounce — and spell — “rear” as “rare.” The latter originated the idiomatic phrase, in the process illogically converting “rare” (an adjective) to an “ing” verb form (gerund), thus losing the original equine association to boot.

The colloquialism has taken precedence in modern usage, “rearing to go” being considered by some authorities to be stilted, verging on pretentious. Nevertheless, having now learned its bass-ackward formation, I can’t bring myself to defer to the majority decree “raring to go.”

I decided to forgo the expression and planned to substitute the synonymous expression “champing at the bit” (also derived from horse-racing; the “bit” part of the harness is placed in the horse’s mouth).

My plan went awry

I learned that “chomping” has since overtaken “champing,” the latter being deemed by some sources as pedantic. (Apologies to those I’ve “corrected.”)

Unlike “raring,” “chomping” is a natural substitute given its obvious association: biting the bit! The only link I can construe with “champing” is “champion,” (which is fortuitous; “champing” — I had to look it up — pertains to the grinding of teeth).

Alas, the usage manuals of yesteryear haunt me, so I cannot bring myself to use “chomping” either. I guess I’ll have to let the horses rear and rare and champ and chomp without me.

Like … champing at the bit, ‘rearing to go’ is a horse-related expression that has been mangled by people who know nothing about horses. Unfortunately, with this expression, ignorance has won out.

The phrase seems to have originated with the dialect form, so raring to go is the default. Rearing to go is not wrong, per se, but sounds a bit awkward. It is a hypercorrection, preferred by people who don’t feel comfortable with a colloquial word or want to point out “the horsey connection,” as Fowler’s puts it.

The bit fits into a toothless ridge of the horse’s mouth, so the horse never really bites the bit. But it can grind his teeth or jaw against the bit, and if it does, it means that the horse is either nervous, or really excited about racing.

The Grammarist blog … comes down on the side of “chomping.” It points out that “champing at the bit can sound funny to people who aren’t familiar with the idiom or the obsolete sense of champ, while most English speakers can infer the meaning of chomping at the bit.”