Sayings provoke such confusion and we’re pretty sure we’re not alone in getting pretty bloody angry about all of this. Take today’s example – it’s a popular thing to say one is “letting my hare down”, even if you don’t own a hare. What’s all this about, then?
You can study the etymology of these things to try and learn what’s going on, but the best type of research is to get practical. As a result, we went out and bought a load of hares to try and figure out what happens when one well and truly lets one’s hare down. Here we go!
Let your hare down
Side by side we stood in the Professional Moron office holding our hares, but this itself proved troublesome. Several of the beasts were unhappy with being manhandled and, in an attempt to flee, writhed about the place, broke free of our grasp, and scuttled off into hiding. This wasn’t “letting one’s hare down” it was singularly failing to control the wild animal.
The ones which did behave… well, when we put them down there was kind of an anti-climatic event. They just stood there with their noses wiggling away – very disappointing. We were expecting to discover the meaning of life, or something. Nothing! What a let-down.
Confused, we headed out into the streets of Manchester to ask angry locals what they think it means. One old guy called us “blithering idiots” and tried to claim it’s “let your hair down”. LOL! Yeah, right, what an anachronistic old codger. For a start, many men are bald and so can’t let their hair down. If this saying were true, it’d be horribly sexist so we don’t even want to go there.
Origins of a Saying
Where did it originate from? All we can presume is there was a moment in the past where everyone had a pet hare. However, a great emancipating moment came for the hare species when everyone decided to let them romp free in nearby fields – thusly, everyone let their hare down.
It’s either this or a major pandemic of rabies ensured nobody wanted to be anywhere near a hare. In other words, this saying emerged and acted like one of those modern day commercials which warn you about not wearing a seatbelt. Who knows, perhaps letting your hare down ensured humanity was able to prevail over mortifying diseases of yore.
Incidentally, we don’t wear a seatbelt anyway as we’re anti-seatbelts. You may feel the need to wear one, but we’d prefer to run the risk of being killed outright or being left as a vegetable for the rest of our lives. You may baulk at such stupidity, but we think it’s cool. This is also why we keep loads of hares around with us. Aight.