dark horse
See also: darkhorse
English[edit]
John Frederick Herring, Sr., ‘Charles XII’ and ‘Euclid’, The Decisive Heat for the Great St Leger Stakes at Doncaster, 1839
Etymology[edit]
Originally an allusion to an unknown horse with a dark coat winning a race, as used in the 1831 novel The Young Duke by Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881): “ […] and a dark horse, which had never been thought of, [...] rushed past the grand stand in sweeping triumph.”[1]
Noun[edit]
dark horse (plural dark horses)
- (idiomatic) Someone who possesses talents or favorable characteristics that are not known or expected by others.
- 2005, Steve Augarde, Celandine, London: David Fickling Books, ISBN 978-0-385-60918-0; republished London: Corgi Books, 2006, ISBN 978-0-552-54968-4, page 13:
- As she pulled the door closed behind her, she heard the nurse say, “Well! You’re a dark horse, I must say! Do you know that extraordinary-looking girl?”
- 2009, Sophie Kinsella, Twenties Girl: A Novel, London: Dial Press, ISBN 978-0-385-34202-5; republished London: Black Swan, 2010, ISBN 978-0-552-77436-9, page 183:
- “Well!” Genevieve laughs – the kind of bright, trilling laugh you give when you’re really quite annoyed about something. “Ed, you are a dark horse! I had no idea you had a girlfriend!”
- 2005, Steve Augarde, Celandine, London: David Fickling Books, ISBN 978-0-385-60918-0; republished London: Corgi Books, 2006, ISBN 978-0-552-54968-4, page 13:
- (idiomatic, politics) A candidate for an election who is nominated unexpectedly, without previously having been discussed or considered as a likely choice.
- Used other than as an idiom: see dark, horse.
Translations[edit]
possessor of unexpected talents or favorable characteristics
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in politics
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Further reading[edit]
dark horse on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
References[edit]
- ^ Benjamin Disraeli (1831), “Chapter V: Ruined Hopes”, in The Young Duke: A Moral Tale, though Gay (Project Gutenberg; EBook #20008 (4 November 2012))[1], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, London; Printed by Samuel Bentley, Dorset Street, Fleet Street, OCLC 7125898.
