don't look a gift horse in the mouth

WOTD – 17 December 2009    

English

Alternative forms

• never look a gift horse in the mouth

Etymology

This phrase, it seems, can be traced back to St. Jerome, who referred to it as a common saying in his introductory remarks to the Epistle to the Ephesians in his translation of the New Testament: "Equi donati dentes non inspiciuntur." A rather mangled literal translation would go something like this: "A given horse's teeth are not inspected." This is evident from parsing the original Latin sentence: Equi (masculine genitive singular) donati (perfect passive (supine) masculine genitive singular) dentes (masculine accusative plural) non (negative adverb) inspiciuntur (3rd person plural present passive indicative). It is likely that English versions are translations of this original Latin; furthermore, the Latin form seems to explain the use of "given" (geuen) in the 1546 version.

From early modern English given horse: "No man ought to looke a geuen hors in the mouth." —John Heywood, 1546.

Horses' gums recede as they age making their teeth appear longer (hence the term, "long in the tooth"). Inspecting the teeth of a horse given as a gift was considered ungrateful. It would mean that recipient is trying to see if the horse is old (undesirable) or young (more desirable).

The substitution of "gift" for "given" occurred in 1663 in Butler’s Hudibras, because the iambic tetrameter required a shortening:

He ne’er consider'd it, as loth

To look a Gift-horse in the mouth.

Proverb

don't look a gift horse in the mouth

1. Do not unappreciatively question a gift or handout too closely.

Related terms

• long in the tooth

Translations

a phrase referring to unappreciatively questioning of a gift or handout too closely

• Catalan: a cavall regalat, no li miris el dentat (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: (no equivalent idiom exists) 不要對禮物吹毛求疵, 不要对礼物吹毛求疵 (bùyào duì lǐwù chuīmáoqiúcī), 不要對禮物挑三揀四, 不要对礼物挑三拣四 (bùyào duì lǐwù tiāosānjiǎnsì)

• Czech: darovanému koni na zuby nekoukej (cs), darovanému koni na zuby nehleď (cs)
• Danish: sku ikke en given hest i munden (da)
• Dutch: een gegeven paard niet in de bek kijken (nl), Men moet een gegeven paard niet in de bek kijken (nl)
• Estonian: kingitud hobuse suhu ei vaadata (et)
• Finnish: lahjahevosen suuhun ei saa katsoa (fi)
• French: à cheval donné, on ne regarde pas la bouche (fr), à cheval donné on ne regarde pas les dents (fr), à cheval donné on ne regarde pas la bride (fr)
• German: einem geschenkten Gaul schaut man nicht ins Maul (de)
• Hungarian: ajándék lónak ne nézd a fogát (hu)

• Icelandic: (look a gift horse in the mouth) kunna ekki gott að meta (is), (don't look a gift horse in the mouth) ekki vera vanþakklátur (is) m
• Italian: a caval donato non si guarda in bocca (it)
• Polish: darowanemu koniowi nie zagląda się w zęby (pl)
• Portuguese: a cavalo dado não se olha os dentes (pt)
• Romanian: calul de dar nu se caută la dinți (ro), calul de dar nu se caută în gură (ro)
• Russian: дарёному коню в зубы не смотрят (ru) (darjónomu konjú v zúby ne smótrjat)
• Serbo-Croatian: poklonjenom konju se ne gleda u zube (sh)
• Slovak: darovanému koňovi sa na zuby nepozeraj (sk)!
• Spanish: a caballo regalado no se le miran los dientes (es), a caballo regalado no le mires el diente (es)
• Swedish: skåda inte en given häst i munnen (sv)
• Turkish: üzümünü ye bağını sorma (tr), hediye atın dişine bakılmaz (tr)

See also

• beggars can't be choosers
• Trojan horse

References

• Gregory Y. Titelman, Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings, 1996, ISBN 0-679-44554-4, p. 69.