‘a horse’s head in one’s bed’: meaning and origin

29th Mar 2025.Reading time 12 minutes.

USA, 1972—a chilling warning given to somebody—from Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972), in which the severed head of a horse is left as a warning in a film producer’s bed

‘short-arm inspection’: meaning and origin

31st Mar 2022.Reading time 8 minutes.

USA, 1917—originally and chiefly military slang—an inspection of the penis for venereal disease or other infection—the image is of the penis as an additional, but shorter, limb

word histories

Tag: Mario Puzo

‘a horse’s head in one’s bed’: meaning and origin

‘short-arm inspection’: meaning and origin