The phrase “get my goat” means to be extremely annoyed, but its origins are unclear. It may have come from the French phrase “prendre la chèvre” or from the practice of using goats to calm racehorses. The phrase is of American origin and dates back to the early 1900s.
When people say something “really pisses me off,” they mean they are extremely pissed off. A wide variety of things could contribute to the irritation, ranging from someone else’s actions to a series of events, but, despite the turn of phrase, goats aren’t usually involved. Like many colorful idioms in the English language, the origins of “get my goat” are obscure, hard to pin down, and actually quite fascinating.
Basic meaning
If a person says “this really pisses me off,” they are simply expressing that an event or object has caused annoyance. The “that” in the statement may not even refer to an actual thing, but rather to a situation. It is also common for a person to address the phrase to someone else as “you really have my goat”, to indicate that the subject of the comment is annoying to the speaker.
Early use and possible origins
The first recorded uses of the phrase date back to the early 1900s and seem to suggest that this idiom is of American origin. This time period was, in fact, a great era for colorful slang terms in America, reflecting the rapid expansion of settlement in the United States and the admixture of people from a wide variety of social, class, and ethnic backgrounds. A number of slang terms from this era are undoubtedly corruptions of slang from other languages or misunderstandings of English words. Some people have suggested that “takes my goat” may be related to “goad,” as in “irritant.”
Possible roots in French
This fairly trivial explanation has been eclipsed by a number of other interpretations of the term slang. Some people have suggested that the term is a translation from the French prendre la chèvre, “to take the goat,” an Old French idiom referring to someone’s form of income. For low-income French peasants, theft or a goat would be a catastrophe, as the animals provided their owners with milk and meat. However, this could be a backformation, which is a connection made after the fact, rather than a “gets my goat” explanation.
Connections with horse racing
One of the more interesting explanations behind “takes my goat” concerns racehorses. As early as the 1700s, goats were used as pets to help settle racehorses, keeping the notoriously skittish animals relaxed. Taking away a horse’s pet goat would agitate and upset the animal, potentially affecting the outcome of a race.
The practice of providing racehorses with pets is still widespread, with horses bonding with ponies, chickens, dogs, and a variety of other animals besides goats. In fact, many horses become deeply attached to their companions, showing considerable stress when these animals are removed. Someone taking a pet away could have a negative impact on a horse’s performance, and such incidents may have inspired the “takes my goat” idiom among observers.
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