Feague: Your Disturbing Word of the Day

If you are trying to sharpen your intellect by learning a new word of the day, try tackling “feague.” Just be sure your horse doesn’t see you studying up on this obsolete word that describes a particularly disturbing form of horse treatment.

According to Francis Grose’s 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, this is what it means:

FEAGUE: To feague a horse; to put ginger up a horse’s fundament, and formerly, as it is said, a live eel, to make him lively and carry his tail well; it is said, a forfeit is incurred by any horse-dealer’s servant, who shall shew a horse without first feaguing him. Feague is used, figuratively, for encouraging or spiriting one up.

As disturbing as this obsolete word may be, we can’t help but point to it as a testament to the versatility of the English language. If you showed up at the United Nations and asked a group of delegates how to describe the process of shoving a live eel up the hind end of a horse, what would happen? OK, assuming you aren’t arrested and escorted off the premises, that is. The French, Danes, or Spaniards would have to give you three or four sentences, in all likelihood to describe this obscure veterinary form of horse treatment. An Englishman, however, can just say, “Feague,” and the job is done.

Perhaps this is what Professor Henry Higgins was referring to in My Fair Lady, when he said, “The majesty and grandeur of the English language, it’s the greatest possession we have. The noblest thoughts that ever flowed through the hearts of men are contained in its extraordinary, imaginative, and musical mixtures of sounds.”

So there you have it. Impress your friends — human and equine alike — with this fun word of the day: feague. Just be glad you’re not a horse.

Or an eel, come to think of it.

Read about more obsolete words and definitions here.

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