"Get on Your High Horse" The meaning and the Origins of the Equestrian Idiom

An idiom is an expression or saying that means something (far) other than its literal translation. The British language contains thousands of idioms. Learning and using idioms can significantly improve one's creative writing skills, increase everyday conversational skills and manifest in-depth command of British-bound lexis and mentality.

"Get on one's high horse": The idiom "Get on one's high horse" bears no semantic relation to any equestrian activity. It is a self-revealing metaphor to use when you notice that a person is considered to be taking a moral stand in an authoritative and often aggressive manner. The idiom is usually reserved for someone who regularly acts in this supercilious, contumacious manner. "Oh my, he's getting on his high horse again" The idiom conveys an exaggerated sense of one's own importance that shows itself in the making of excessive or unjustified claim; to start talking angrily about something bad that someone else has done as if you feel you are superior or legitimate, showing arrogance or conceit. An arrogant and unyielding mood or attitude.

THESAURUS Other words and phrases that convey similar meaning, i.e. the feeling of exaggeration in moral criticism, are: (as) proud as Lucifer, a cut above, airs and graces, as if you owned the place, be too clever by half, be up yourself, beneath your dignity, bigheaded, bombastic, brash, bumptious, chest-thumping, cock a snook at someone/ something, cock of the walk, come/ get off your high horse, conceited, condescending, contumacious, de haut en bas, delusions of grandeur, disdainful, disrespectful, egoistic, egomaniac, egocentric, fustion, high and mighty, high-flown, hoity-toity, hubristic, immodest, imperious, infra dig, know all the answers, lofty, lordly, mansplain, narcissist, narcissistic, nose in the air, officious, overbearing, overweening, patronizing, pompous, portentous, preen, put on the dog, self-appointed, self-satisfied, sententious, smart alec, smart mouth, snooty, stand your dignity, supercilious, swaggerer, swanky, swollen headed, talk down to, the big I am, think the (whole) world revolves around you, throw your weight around, tin god, too big for your boots, unapologetic, tofee-nosed, vain, pretentious.

Horses own the winner's circle in English. The opposite idiom, "to get off one's high horse", is predominantly used as petition, as people who straddle high on their horses are virtually improbable to change heart, and the idiom prompts them to become more modest and humble. It originated in the 1780s; Being told you were on a "High Horse" used to be a compliment, as a matter of fact. Only soldiers and royalty rode tall war chargers. Then , as people lost respect for the high and mighty during the revolutions of the late 1700s, the high horse was seen as an uppity.