# Charley Horse?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charley-horse/221396>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 28, 2003, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charley-horse/221396 "2003-12-28T08:40:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![OliverTwistofLime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b487fb/32.png) [@OliverTwistofLime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OliverTwistofLime)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2003, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charley-horse/221396/1 "2003-12-28T08:40:21Z")

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Many of us at sometime in our lives have had that painful balling up of thigh, calf, or foot muscle which can be extremely painful.

How did these muscle cramps get the name Charley Horse?

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**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2003, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charley-horse/221396/2 "2003-12-28T09:08:36Z")

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From [this](http://www.whatsnewemu.com/custom/lexicon.html) site:

> [@](#):
>
> Charley Horse  
> This term for a pulled muscle was originally a baseball term. dating back at least to 1888. Its origin is obscure and no one knows who Charley was or why he may or may not have had a lame horse.

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2003, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charley-horse/221396/3 "2003-12-28T14:48:25Z")

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Yep! It’s almost certainly a baseball term. I made William Safire’s December 7th column _On Language_ in the NY Times Magazine with the earliest cite found so far–August, 1886. It certainly originated before that date, and as more newspapers are digitized, we’ll push the first citing back a bit farther. Perhaps some day we may actually find out if it originated in a single location, and whether it referred to anyone in particular. But for now, it’s mysterious.