“That really gets my goat!” means it irritates or annoys me.
Where did this phrase originate?
From goatberries.com:
The claim that the phrase is “distinctly American” and dates back to 1909 seems very implausible to me. I am British and the expression seems to me to be a perfectly normal part of colloquial British English. That does not rule out the possibility that it may have originated in America, but if it originated as recently as 1909, which would mean that it crossed the Atlantic some time after that, then, even if it caught on very rapidly in Britain, it would undoubtedly still have the flavour of an Americanism.
I am also doubtful about the story about goats being used to calm other animals. First of all, is that even really true? (Why on Earth would goats have such an effect?) But that aside, why do we even need such an elaborate story? If I owned a goat (as, once upon a time, many people did), and somebody else got it, I would be annoyed.
This UK phrase site gives a date of 1924 for the first non-US cite, while confirming the 1909 date:
Most places seem to agree that there’s no consensus as to the origin.
I only know that when I joined the Dope, the goat’s effect on me was the opposite of calming! :eek:
That would depend on whether or not you’re a barn animal.
You’re swimming against the tide here.
. Which it perhaps does.
Your personal feelings aside, why can’t it be true?
Not weighing in on the origin of the phrase, but it is a common thing to keep goats as stable mates to racehorses. Like most livestock species horses are herd animals and need others of their species to feel calm. They will attach to a goat if there’s not another horse. It’s not that goats have magical calming powers, they are simply practical – typically intelligent, confident, tame, and easy to handle (unlike a sheep), easily attached to another species of livestock if there are no other goats around, small size (take up less space and eat less than another horse). Both species make strong friendship bonds, so it’s a way to keep a nervous horse settled down with an (inexpensive small) friend. Burros and ponies are also used this way.
But I have doubts this has much to do with the phrase, somehow. It could slightly more plausibly be about teasing billy goats to rile them up (a rural pastime of small boys).
Your post was helpful, if only to confirm the calming effect.
What tide? When I posted there was one, single post saying otherwise, apparently basing its claims on a site called goatberries.com. Maybe my conclusions were wrong, but I don’t think I was being at all absurd to be skeptical of Prof. Pepperwinkle’s claims, on the grounds of my own experience of the use of the expression, at that stage of the discussion.
I am not sure what you mean by this. What I am saying is that it seems to me that I have known this expression since I was a child, growing up in England a half century ago. Even back then, I knew that some expressions were “proper English” and some were really American expressions that people had picked up from American films, TV and the like. It never occurred to me, however, that “gets my goat” was one of these. It has always seemed perfectly British to me. Yet, according to Prof. Pepperwinkle and goatberries.com, the expression could not then have been in use at all in Britain for more than about 40 years at the very most, and almost certainly a much shorter period. I do not say it is impossible that it was first imported and then both widely popularized and fully naturalized that quickly, but I do say it is unlikely, especially since many American expressions have now been around in Britain much longer than that, and still seem like Americanisms. I guess the evidence is now stacking up that it actually did happen that quickly. Well, that’s weird, I say.
I never said it can’t, I said I find it unlikely. I can accept Ulfreida’s testimony, but I still find it surprising.
And, as I said, I am not convinced that there is any need to appeal to this fact in order to explain the expression. A simpler hypothesis is available.
I’ve always assumed it was a way to get around saying “God” or “Jesus” or “Christ,” which were early swear words.
“That really gets my God” doesn’t really strike me as a likely origin of the phrase.
It’s common enough it was referenced in The Sopranos. Tony Soprano’s racehorse Pie-O-My has a goat as a stablemate, seen at about 1:23 in this clip.
Not so far from “god damn you,” imho.
I must admit, it struck me with the same surprise, but even unlikely things happen occasionally.
There’s also the “Judas goat”. The Wiki page goes into more details (and more situations where they might be used), but I was familiar with the concept as it pertains to slaughterhouses : the knackers traditionally kept a goat with the other animals, and when it was time to lead them to get a hammer to the noggin’ they’d trot the goat out in front of the pens. The goat’s done this many times, so it’s not stressed out at all. The cows see this, conclude everything’s fine, come out quietly. Only the goat gets to come back. Rinse, repeat.
(As for me, I always assumed the phrase referred to the notorious ill temperament of billy goats, and the malign creativity of old goats in general. The toothless little creeps carry a hell of a grudge.)
Obviously derives from cadet pranksters stealing the Navy mascot before the Army Navy game. 
“Getting their mule” never really caught on in the public lexicon after the first (And last) attempt at bundling off the army mascot…
I don’t see any resemblance at all myself, in either form or meaning.
This from World Wide Words who I consider to be as good an authority on semantics as you can find anywhere on the web: http://www.worldwidewords.org/