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  • Hi this is to Nick P and this is Word Origins 71. The word origin today is a

  • wild goose chase. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If someone goes on a

  • wild goose chase, he or she goes off on a foolish or hopeless search for something,

  • especially something that cannot be attained. Meaning you could never, maybe

  • could never be attained because maybe it's not there. Or something that is not

  • worth chasing in that sense. We say that somebody goes on a wild goose chase or

  • has been sent on a wild goose chase or is on a wild goose chase. You could use

  • any of those verb phrases with it. All right. Let's continue, The origin actually comes

  • from an old horse-racing game. That goes all the way back to medieval times. The

  • race started out as a regular race. Whoever won the first race became the

  • leader and could ... and could ride wildly. And often the other, the other

  • riders they actually had to follow him. So , so and when he and when he did this

  • he was known for changing directions. So he would just change directions to his

  • whims. So wherever he felt like it so he would purposely ride this way. Then

  • suddenly turn right. suddenly turn left. Go in old crazy directions and this was

  • a game that they had. So the other horse riders had to follow him. So this is why

  • this is why it ends up being called a wild goose chase.

  • So let's continue here. It was believed to be a wild goose, it was believed to be

  • called a wild goose chase because geese often run in an unusual and

  • unpredictable pattern. Often changing directions which make them difficult to

  • catch. So if you if anybody ever tried to chase a goose you know, he will often run

  • and then suddenly turn this way suddenly turn that way. Maybe zigzag or who knows ?

  • You just don't know which way he's going to turn I don't know maybe they've

  • instinctively learned that's a good way to you know escape predators. People that

  • are chasing them. Okay. Let's continue. We actually have three

  • examples here. Here's the first one. That criminal purposely left fake evidence at

  • the crime scene to send the police on a wild goose chase. So maybe he left

  • evidence that would lead ... that would be obvious evidence that would lead the

  • police in the wrong direction looking for the wrong thing. So this way it gets

  • off his track and he has more time to escape. So we've seen this in some movies.

  • Maybe the criminal is smart enough to leave fake evidence to send the police

  • on a wild goose chase. Okay. Or number two here. I've heard

  • some political commentators speculate that the reason Trump doesn't release

  • his tax returns is to send his enemies on a wild goose chase. Yeah. Their

  • thinking behind this idea is you know, he was a real estate mogul for many, many

  • years and he had all the best accountants and you know, he knew that he

  • could be you know, audited at any time. So he made sure that he dotted every " I"

  • and and everything. So there may not really be anything there. So he could

  • release them. But why does he have to release them. If he releases them... if he

  • doesn't release them his enemy spend all this time and all this energy trying

  • to get something that even if they do get it one day

  • maybe there's nothing there. They may not find anything. No illegal activity or

  • anything. So it's kind of like sending them on a wild goose chase. Making them

  • they think there must be.... if he doesn't release them maybe there's something

  • there. But maybe there's really nothing there. If there's nothing there, he's

  • making them waste all their time and all their energy trying to get something

  • that you know, it's maybe not worth chasing. Okay and number three here. In

  • the old movie, "Cliffhanger". Yes. This movie is about more than 20 years old now.

  • maybe even 25 years old with Sylvester Stallone. His character tied a tracking

  • device to a rabbit in order to send the ruthless international

  • thieves on a wild goose chase. Yeah. In the movie supposedly they you know, they

  • robbed some plane where they had the money was shifted over and a lot of the

  • the bags with all the money or the bonds in them... I think they were actually

  • bonds, fell down in the mountains And they had to find them but they knew that

  • they all had tracking devices. So they could find them.

  • However this character who he plays like a mountain man or a mountain climber at

  • that time. He was able to find it first and he knew that there's a tracking device. He

  • opened it and he got the tracking device put it on an animal, so this way they

  • think they're looking for the bag and they're actually just following a little

  • rabbit. That's running around all over the place. So when he did that. He sent

  • them on a wild goose chase. Anyway I hope you got it. I hope it's

  • clear. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.

Hi this is to Nick P and this is Word Origins 71. The word origin today is a

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