Right from the horse’s mouth?

Reader question:

Please explain this sentence, particularly “right from the horse’s mouth”: We have it right from the horse’s mouth that he won’t accept the offer.

My comments:

He has turned down the offer. He told us directly that he won’t accept the offer.

Let’s say that he’s offered a job by a hiring company. He refused the offer and told the company so.

So, either the company improve the offer or look for someone else to take their offer.

At any rate, that’s what “right from the horse’s mouth” implies.

The standard expression, actually, is “straight from the horse’s mouth” although it’s also exactly right to say “right from the horse’s mouth”.

This expression is believed to have derived from horse racing. People who bet on horses try every way they can to get more information about the form and condition of the horses. Apparently the more you know about a horse, the more you can assess its ability to win.

Hence, in short, people who ride and keep the horses in question become the greatest sources for accurate information – thanks to their proximity or closeness to the horses.

Horses grow their teeth longer and longer as they age, so, as a common practice, people determine a horse’s age by examining its teeth. If the teeth are short, clean and firm, then the horse young and healthy. If the teeth are long and rotten, then the horse is old and useless.

Have you heard of the expression, “Don’t look at a gift horse in the mouth”?

Same idea, meaning don’t judge the physical value of a gift. It’s the thoughtfulness of the gift giver that counts.

Anyway, in horse racing, “straight from the horse’s mouth” becomes synonymous with accurate information because it comes straight from the horse and people who are closest to it.

In our example, “we” got the info “right from the horse’s mouth”, so you can trust our words as accurate and, therefore, reliable.

In other words, he has definitely turned down the offer.

And that is, well, that.

Now, let’s read a few media examples for greater illustration:

1. Finals MVP LeBron James will not exercise his player option with the Cleveland Cavaliers for the 2016-17 season, according to his agent, Rich Paul.

James, who had to inform the Cavs of his decision by Wednesday at midnight, will become a free agent July 1 for the third straight summer. He was slated to earn $24 million next season.

Though he has opted out, James can re-sign with the Cavaliers and said last week he has no intentions of leaving Cleveland again.

“I love it here in Cleveland. I have no intentions of leaving,” James told ESPN's Dave McMenamin during the Cavaliers’ championship parade. “There are some technicalities to take care of I’ll leave up to my agent. That’s right from the horse’s mouth.”

On Tuesday night, however, Paul gave no insight into what type of contract his client would eventually sign with the Cavs or what the timetable is for his expected return to Cleveland.

James, who turns 32 at the end of December, completed the second season of his return to Cleveland by leading the Cavaliers to an NBA title. He was unanimously voted MVP of the Finals after averaging 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds and 8.9 assists with an effective field goal percentage of 53.3. He became the third player to record a triple-double in Game 7 of the Finals, joining Jerry West in 1969 and James Worthy in ’88.

“Best player on the planet,” Cavs teammate Kyrie Irving said afterward.

James previously won consecutive Finals MVPs in 2012 and ’13, when he won his first two titles with the Miami Heat.

During the 2015-16 regular season, James averaged 25.3 points for the second straight season but also 7.4 rebounds and 6.8 assists.

- Agent: LeBron James elects to opt out of $24M player option, ESPN.com, June 28, 2016.

2. We don’t normally like to partake in the pitting of women against each other, but when shots are fired directly from the horse’s mouth, we can’t help but pay attention. In her unapologetic memoir slated for release on April 2, 2024, Rebel Wilson claimed Adele “hates” her and the reason is… a little baffling if we’re being honest.

“Some actresses would get offended if I called them plus-size in this book, so I have to be careful with what I say,” Rebel wrote, per Life&Style. “This is why, I think, Adele hates me. There was a moment when she was bigger, and some people would confuse us for one another.”

She continued: “I am assuming, because to be fair I’ve never asked her (she always quickly turns away from me at the few events where I’ve seen her, as if my fatness might rub off on her if I were near her for more than thirty seconds), that she didn’t like being compared to ‘Fat Amy.’”

In 2019, Wilson told the Associated Press: “There’s a lot of pressure on women, especially younger women, to conform to the thin body image. Not everyone can be that way and no one should be ashamed of how they look or suffer bullying and other forms of abuse because of their size and shape.”

A year later, she declared 2020 was her “year of health” and underwent a significant body transformation wherein she lost 80 lbs. It was partially due to a visit to her fertility doctor, who said she’d have better luck with IVF if she lost weight.

“I was taken aback. I thought, ‘Oh God, this guy’s so rude.’ He was right. I was carrying around a lot of excess weight,” Rebel told People. “It’s almost like I didn’t think of my own needs. I thought of a future child’s needs that really inspired me to get healthier.”

Similarly, Adele lost “over 100 lbs” over the course of two years, but says a slimmer figure was never the goal. “It was because of my anxiety,” she explained to British Vogue in their November 2021 issue. “Working out, I would just feel better. It was never about losing weight, it was always about becoming strong and giving myself as much time every day without my phone.”

“I got quite addicted to it. I work out two or three times a day,” she continued. “But I needed to get addicted to something to get my mind right. It could have been knitting, but it wasn’t.”

- Rebel Wilson Claims Adele ‘Hates’ Her For This Reason: ‘She Didn’t Like…’, StyleCaster.com, April 1, 2024.

3. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was brutally mocked on Wednesday for claiming that President Donald Trump’s social media posts come directly from him, days after the administration blamed a staffer for posting a racist video to the president’s account.

Trump sparked outrage in early February when he posted a video to Truth Social that included a depiction of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes. Leavitt initially defended the post, claiming the president was merely sharing an “internet meme.” But after widespread criticism from members of Congress on both the right and the left, the post was deleted and blamed on an unnamed White House staffer.

“President Trump didn’t see the video (legitimately didn’t), a staffer posted it,” an administration official told Politico’s Sophia Cai.

But when asked on Wednesday about Trump’s recent post concerning control of the Diego Garcia island, Levitt touted Trump’s “transparency” on Truth Social, claiming posts on the platform come directly from the president.

“The post should be taken as the policy of the Trump administration. It’s coming straight from the horse’s mouth,” she said. “When you see it on Truth Social, you know it’s directly from President Trump. That’s the beauty of this president in his transparency in relaying this administration’s policies to the rest of you and to the rest of the world.”

Many on the left and in the media were quick to jump on Levitt’s contradictions, pointing out the hypocrisy in choosing to blame the ape video on a staffer.

“Unless it’s racist. Then suddenly a staffer grabbed his phone,” wrote California Governor Gavin Newsom’s (D) press office.

Others claimed that Levitt’s words were a confirmation that Trump had, in fact, posted the initial video.

“And now @PressSec confirms: Donald Trump posted the racist video of the Obamas,” wrote Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

- Left Drags Karoline Leavitt For Claiming Posts Come Straight From Trump, After Blaming Racist Video on Staffer, MediaITE.com, February 18, 2026.

本文仅代表作者本人观点，与本网立场无关。欢迎大家讨论学术问题，尊重他人，禁止人身攻击和发布一切违反国家现行法律法规的内容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：张欣）