# Horse Chestnuts

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horse-chestnuts/187073>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 8, 2003, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horse-chestnuts/187073 "2003-07-08T19:57:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horse-chestnuts/187073/1 "2003-07-08T19:57:40Z")

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Horse Chessnuts  
Horse Radish  
What’s a horse got to do with it?

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horse-chestnuts/187073/2 "2003-07-08T20:10:17Z")

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According to the editors at the OED, “horse-” was a common prefix for various plants indicating a “strong or coarse” variant.

I have read that some speculate that that derives from a bad translation of a German(ic) word “meer,” meaning “more.”

“Meer” was mistranslated as “mare” which then became “horse,” or something like that.

I don’t know how well that is believed or documented, though.

BTW, horses have callosities on their inner legs called “chestnuts,” but I don’t know why they are thus yclept.

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horse-chestnuts/187073/3 "2003-07-08T20:12:33Z")

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In the case of “horse chestnut” that you mentioned, that seems to be different. The OED editors cited someone who said that they were used to treat horses’ coughs.

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**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horse-chestnuts/187073/4 "2003-07-09T00:18:55Z")

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And now…

Number three…

The Larch.

_The…LARCH._

:rolleyes:

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**Author:** ![hammerbach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/73ab20/32.png) [@hammerbach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hammerbach)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horse-chestnuts/187073/5 "2003-07-09T05:11:28Z")

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What’s a larch got to do with it? That’s a conifer softwood, and the horse chestnut is a deciduous hardwood, is it not?

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**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horse-chestnuts/187073/6 "2003-07-09T08:14:59Z")

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Woosh

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**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/horse-chestnuts/187073/7 "2003-07-09T14:40:10Z")

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I thought _The Larch_ was number 1.