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The Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins dates the phrase to a peculiar kind of 16th-century English horse race. The racers would set off in a forest and follow a lead horse, which could run in any direction. It was known as a "wild goose chase." Why the goose imagery? Perhaps it describes the wayward course of the lead horse, comparing it with a goose running wild. Or maybe it captures the rest of the pack following the leader, much like geese flying in formation. Animal Planet details other
innovative origin theories involving Scottish fair games, cruel parenting techniques, and hungry pilgrims. But they all eventually point to the same old horse race -- with an interesting variation. In this version, any horse that ran ahead was the lead horse, and the other riders were forced to follow. Chaos. Bedlam. Fun. In "Romeo and Juliet," Shakespeare uses the phrase to refer specifically to an erratic course taken by one person and followed by another. Later Samuel Johnson defined the phrase in his dictionary as "a pursuit of something as unlikely to be caught as a wild goose." So, over time the phrase has come to describe any fruitless pursuit.
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