Etymology of a wild goose chase

This came to me from WordSmarts, and I enjoyed it. Hope you do, too.

We can thank Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet for many things, including the enduring trope of star-crossed lovers. Without its legacy, theater, rom-coms, and entertainment in general would look different. Among other terms and phrases that had their first appearance in the play (such as “uncomfortable” and “alligator”), the metaphor “wild goose chase” can be traced to Act 2. Interestingly, the expression was created in reference not to geese but instead to horses.

In Romeo and Juliet, the phrase pops up when the hot-blooded Mercutio is in a verbal sparring match with Romeo. He says, “Nay, if thy wits run the wild-goose chase, I have done, for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I have in my whole five.” But Mercutio wasn’t referring to a pursuit of the notoriously temperamental waterfowl. The wild goose chase was an equestrian race where the lead rider sped unpredictably around a course, with other riders following in a wavelike pattern, mimicking the erratic flight of wild geese. Equestrian expert Gervase Markham described the event in his 1593 manual The Hunter: A Discourse of Horsemanship, noting the name was related to similarities between the race and a flying formation.

Mercutio uses the race as a metaphor for his conversation with Romeo, suggesting Romeo is steering the discussion in any direction he pleases, just as the head rider leads a wild goose chase.

Shakespeare’s popularity was such that words and phrases in his works were quickly adopted into the lexicon, and by the 17th century, “wild goose chase” was a common metaphor to describe an impulsive person on an erratic pursuit. A new definition emerged in 1755 in Samuel Johnson’s highly influential A Dictionary of the English Language, which defined the term as “a pursuit of something as unlikely to be caught as the wildgoose.” In this volume, widely recognized as the first comprehensive English language dictionary, the equestrian ties were severed, and the metaphor related to the difficulty of catching a rogue bird.

Today, “wild goose chase” describes a foolish, fruitless, or hopeless quest, and both Johnson’s and Shakespeare’s contexts can apply. The older definition (referring to a lively horse race) still makes sense, as it may be a haphazard journey. This makes the phrase a rare bird among English metaphors, as not many have an original meaning that remains relevant centuries later. So, whether you’re chasing a goal, an idea, an actual goose, or an unwieldy horse, the phrase “wild goose chase” still captures the essence of an unpredictable quest that is unlikely to succeed.