What Exactly Is a “Wild Goose Chase”?

[redrider90]

I suppose many of use wonder where the Wildgoose Chase came from. I searched WG and could not find it. Instead of asking I searched the web and found this interesting article about the 2 meanings of a "Wild Goose Chase".  http://mentalfloss.com/article/85357/what-exactly-wild-goose-chase

I suppose LUAP might chime and tell as (again??) where he came up with his version for his forum  but this article is a bit of literary fun that has 2 meanings to Wild Goose Chase.    The following was taken from the link above.  I suggest reading the full article  about the dual meanings of a Wild Goose Chase.

"Originally, a “wild goose chase” was a horse race in which a leading rider would head off into a field and make an especially challenging, winding course through the surrounding land. A second rider would then have to follow, retracing the first rider's steps exactly and copying his every twist and turn, no matter how difficult, as they chased after him. A third rider would then set out after the second, and then a fourth and so on, until an entire group of riders was tracking one another through the countryside, all retracing the leader’s steps.
This method of horse racing—which was perhaps originally used as a means of challenging younger or less experienced riders’ horsemanship—became known as a “wild goose chase,” as each rider in the group precisely follows the one in front, just as a flock (or rather, a skein) of geese neatly follow one another in a V shape in the sky. It’s thought that this was the first wild goose chase, before confusion over the wording of the phrase—that is, is it a wild-goose chase or a wild goose-chase?—led to the emergence of the second meaning, as used by Shakespeare. 
Further support for the horse interpretation came just last week, when Australian Shakespearean scholar Dr. David McInnis wrote an article where he claimed to find a reference to a wild goose chase from a couple years before Shakespeare. It’s unknown exactly when Romeo and Juliet was written, but it must have been between 1591 and 1596, and based on writing style is usually dated to circa 1595. But McInnis claims to have found a book on horsemanship from 1593 that uses the phrase six times. In his words, “In this context it is clear that at some point, people understood the 'wild goose chase' to be a complicated type of horse riding challenge or competition.”
Both meanings then seemingly coexisted for another century or so (the Oxford English Dictionary has unearthed a reference to a horse riding wild goose chase dating from as late as the 1690s), before the older of the two began to fall out of use, and Shakespeare’s goose-chasing meaning took its place. Over time, the older meaning was eventually forgotten altogether; even Samuel Johnson failed to acknowledge it at all in his Dictionary of the English Language in 1755, simply defining a “wildgoosechase” as “a pursuit of something as unlikely to be caught as the wild goose.” And the term's surprising horse racing origins have remained consigned to the history books ever since."

[rocker59]

It's simpler than all that.

"Wild Goose" was Luap's Air Force call sign.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

[oldbike54]

 There was an explanation of why Luap decided to use his call sign somewhere here . FAQ 's maybe ?
Might be on the home page .

 Dusty

[Devildog]

Thanks for that Red Rider, I am sure Luap was studying English Literature at the time.

[rodekyll]

Thanks for that Red Rider, I am sure Luap was studying English Literature at the time.

Hey now!  Don't go calling our virtual leader illiterate.  I've talked with Luap.  He knows all the best words, and often gets them in order.

Speaking of Shakespeare, my lit teacher told us that with the religious conflicts happening during his lifetime, "nunnery" (Hamlet, IIRC) was anti-papist slang for "whorehouse".  So who knows what he was thinking when he referred to the "wild goose chase" .  . . .

If the wild goose chase was what they called a complicated steeple chase, it's way badly misnamed.  Wild geese are quite easily chased.  They lumber off the runway (they need a runway) at loaded B-17 speeds and fly in straight paths using regular formations and predictable maneuvers.  The problem is that they know they're slow so they get started two zip codes before you're within range of their insurance network.  So I'll vote for the "futile task" interpretation.

[Don G]

Get thee to a Nunnery !  DonG

[Roebling3]

I believe it was in the early 40's that a 'paper chase' was like the described wild goose chase. Not ideal for mimicking jumping stone walls. A p/up truck laden with bundles of news print would race(?) through farm lands on an indirect route. Wind helped.
Those on horses would chase the scattering paper.  A wealthy, distant cousin came home with a rope burn on his neck. Afterwards 'people' were sent out to assess damage and clean up/pay up. He dazzled this 12 year old. '46 Ford Sportsman w/ 2 speed rear. He didn't make it home from WWII. R3~

[twowings]

What's the meaning of the phrase 'Wild goose chase'?

A hopeless quest.
What's the origin of the phrase 'Wild goose chase'?

This phrase is old and appears to be one of the many phrases introduced to the language by Shakespeare. The first recorded citation is from Romeo and Juliet, 1592:

    Romeo: Switch and spurs, switch and spurs; or I'll cry a match.

    Mercutio: Nay, if thy wits run the wild-goose chase, I have done, for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I have in my whole five.

wild goose chaseOur current use of the phrase alludes to an undertaking which will probably prove to be fruitless - and it's hard to imagine anything more doomed to failure than an attempt to catch a wild goose by chasing after it. Our understanding of the term differs from that in use in Shakespeare's day. The earlier meaning related not to hunting but to horse racing. A 'wild goose chase' was a race in which horses followed a lead horse at a set distance, mimicking wild geese flying in formation. The equine connection was referred to a few years before Shakespeare's usage, in Gervase Markham's equestrian instructional manual A Discource of Horsmanshippe, 1593. Markham describes the rules of the race at length, the essential point being that the horses follow each toher like geese in flight:

    The Wild-goose chase being started, in which the hind∣most Horse is bound to follow the formost, and you hauing the leading, hold a hard hand of your Horse, and make hym gallop softly at great ease, insomuch, that perceiuing your aduersarie striue to take the leading from you, suffer him to come so néere you, that his Horses head may wel nye touch your Horses buttocke, which when you sée, clappe your left spurre in your horses side, and wheele him suddainlie halfe about on your right hand, and then take him vp againe, till such time that he be come to you againe: thus may you doo of eyther hand which you will, and in neuer a one of these turnes, but you shall throw him that rides against you, at least twenty or thirtie yardes behind you, so that whilst you ride at your ease, he shal be forst continually to come vp to you vpon the spur•es, which must wearie the best Horse in the world.Also in thys match, gette your law in the Wild-goose chase, which is most vsually twelue score to bee twentie score, that if your aduersary chaunce to haue more spéede then you, yet with your truth and toughnes, you may reco∣uer him: for that Horse that lets another ouer-runne hym twenty score at the first in a wild-goose chase, it is pyttie he should euer be hunter.

That meaning had been lost by the 19th century. In Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1811, he defines the term much the way we do today:

    "A tedious uncertain pursuit, like the following a flock of wild geese, who are remarkably shy."

The 1978 film 'The Wild Geese' alluded to the phrase in its title. This refers back to Irish mercenaries who 'flew' from Ireland to serve in various European armies in the 16th to 18th centuries. The plot of the film involved a group of mercenaries embarking on a near-impossible mission. Of course, the near-impossible is no problem for action heroes and they caught their prey.

[Vagrant]

moot point! it only happens during breeding season.

[PJPR01]

Since the vast majority of Geese are wild anyway, that would make the phrase Wild Goose Chase redundant to start with, how many domesticated geese have you seen anyway?

So that leaves us with Goose chase...which is most likely one goose chasing another since surely the goose's gander has been offended or his mate (for life) has been insulted by another goose.

By default then a (Wild) Goose Chase can only be one male goose chasing another male goose away to defend the honor of his female goose (mate). 

Tee that one up at the Cedar Vale campfire for discussion!

[oldbike54]

 My brain hurts 

 Dusty

[ITSec]

My brain hurts 

 Dusty

Suck it up, Gumby! 

And no one has even begun to ask whether the phrase means 'chasing wild geese', or a 'wild chase of geese'! 

[pete roper]

*Assistants* at Motomoda's High Tech facility in downtown Bungendore....



 

[Huzo]

Since the vast majority of Geese are wild anyway, that would make the phrase Wild Goose Chase redundant to start with, how many domesticated geese have you seen anyway?

So that leaves us with Goose chase...which is most likely one goose chasing another since surely the goose's gander has been offended or his mate (for life) has been insulted by another goose.

By default then a (Wild) Goose Chase can only be one male goose chasing another male goose away to defend the honor of his female goose (mate). 

Tee that one up at the Cedar Vale campfire for discussion!

Priceless !!!

[Huzo]

*Assistants* at Motomoda's High Tech facility in downtown Bungendore....



 

Give my scissor lift back ya' thieving sod !!!

[tris]

So are this lot chasing each other or going for a walk in the sun

[PJPR01]

*Assistants* at Motomoda's High Tech facility in downtown Bungendore....



 

  Those look like Mallard ducks ( at least the ones near Huzo's scissor jack)...

Nice on Kirby!!

Maybe we should roast a duck or goose at Cedar Vale over the campfire as well...hhmm...!!

[oldbike54]

 Geese live in a highly organized society , and have no trouble traveling in the same direction as a group . So no , they aren't anything like a typical group of Guzzi riders 

 Dusty

[kirby1923]

Geese live in a highly organized society , and have no trouble traveling in the same direction as a group . So no , they aren't anything like a typical group of Guzzi riders 

 Dusty

Ezakly!

 

[molly]

Here in ye olde England I've been on many a wild goose chase, none of course successful.

[Guzzistajohn]

Tee that one up at the Cedar Vale campfire for discussion!

AFTER the Beverly Hillbilly's discussion, and Before Bigfoot!   

And then a few socially unacceptable jokes please!!

You're gonna HATE Thursdays!

[Luap McKeever]

The term "wildgoose" in reference to me goes back quite a while. It all started about the time I was still in single digit number age.  My dad used to let me talk to truckers on his CB when I'd ride along with him.  One of the truckers asked what my handle was, and I had no clue. I asked my dad what that meant and he seen goosebumps on my arms, so he said my handle should be goosebump.  I used that handle for a long time.

Fast forward to 1989 when I joined the Air Force. I was a bomb technician and used the call sign 'Goose'. I did some crazy crazy wild stuff that in all honesty should have killed me many times.  One time our Chief came to the bomb pad and seen me doing said "wild and crazy stuff" and announced over the air "Attention all personnel, this is Blue 2. Effective immediately, Goose will be known as Wild Goose."  Of course the private one on one conversation we had away from the others was a little more rough around the edges. So, I carried that call sign with me on all my duty stations.

That's it campers.  That's the story. It's rather fitting because most of the time, this place is a in fact a "Wildgoose Chase". 

[rodekyll]

Then this one's for you.