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Learned is a weekly newsletter about words and language, written by me (@misterbob), and published every Monday. If you're interested in getting each week's letter delivered straight to your inbox, you can sign up for free right here: http://learned.substack.com Thanks!

This week's issue is all about the phrase "One Horse Town." The following is an excerpt from a section of the newsletter called "identity" where I list out everything I could find about the origins of the phrase.

![identity idiom JPG.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmbfJxRZNE8p47L34FuDbUKdF4C7KzUqu68Pgy9f43yUDM/identity%20idiom%20JPG.jpg) # “One-horse town.”

*Definition(s)* [Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins](https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=J4i3zV4vnBAC&pg=PA299&lpg=PA299&dq=one+horse+town+origin&source=bl&ots=aFwaVHwHwk&sig=ACfU3U1bxp9eEfooVDEiFidTS3lAagbRcA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwif36uA8L_hAhWCy7wKHdvqAOs4ChDoATAFegQICRAB#v=onepage&q=one%20horse%20town%20origin&f=false) >A one-horse town is a small town with hardly any facilities, particularly in the USA. Such towns are associated with the Wild West and the term is first recorded in a U.S. magazine of 1855. The previous year, though, there is a record of a specific place of that name: ‘The principal mining localities are…Whiskey Creek, One Horse Town, One Mule Town, Clear Creek (etc.)’. * Cambridge English Dictionary: [a town that is small and not important](http://a%20town%20that%20is%20small%20and%20not%20important/) * Collins English Dictionary: [a small or obscure town](https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/one-horse-town) * Oxford English Dictionary: [a small town with few and poor facilities](https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=sYScAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA1000&lpg=PA1000&dq=one+horse+town+origin&source=bl&ots=nXeFVmLT39&sig=ACfU3U0RZn-SlcHp8wTHDTGCsRjJZrBneA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwif36uA8L_hAhWCy7wKHdvqAOs4ChDoATAHegQIBxAB#v=onepage&q=one%20horse%20town%20origin&f=false) * ( [Categorized as an idiom by Grammarist.](https://grammarist.com/idiom/one-horse-town/) )

*Origins* [Bees Knees and Barmy Armies - Origins of the Words and Phrases we Use Every Day](https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=gZxK9VPYSBIC&pg=PT26&lpg=PT26&dq=one+horse+town+origin&source=bl&ots=c8ugY6gd0L&sig=ACfU3U2NHUFthITlnEZ--RgFQnKl84d7HA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwif36uA8L_hAhWCy7wKHdvqAOs4ChDoATAGegQICBAB#v=onepage&q=one%20horse%20town%20origin&f=false) >Most of us have come across a ‘one-horse town’ - some of us live in one - for it is quite simply a very small and sleepy town where very little happens. Almost every Western movie ever made features such a town, and the expression is indeed American in origin. This vivid image was first used there in the nineteenth century to depict a community so small that a single horse would be enough to meet its needs. (Author - Harry Oliver) [Wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/one-horse_town) : >The term “one-horse” originated as an agricultural phrase, meaning ‘to be drawn/worked by a single horse.’ This led to the use of this phrase in a metaphorical sense as something that is small or insignificant. Charles Dickens explained in his publication/All the Year Round/(1871): ‘One horse’ is an agricultural phrase, applied to anything small or insignificant, or to any inconsiderable or contemptible person: as a ‘one-horse town,’ a ‘one-horse bank,’ a ‘one-horse hotel,’ a ‘one-horse lawyer’, [etc.] [The Word Detective](http://www.word-detective.com/2012/04/one-horse-town/) : >“One-horse” first appeared in print in the 1730s meaning “Of a vehicle or machine: pulled or worked by a single horse. Also, of a person: having or using only one horse” (OED). A “one-horse” carriage was a small rig, and a “one-horse” business was a humble operation (“‘One-horse farmers’ … had to struggle with the inconvenience of borrowing and lending horses,” 1887). By the mid-19th century the adjective “one-horse” had come to mean “small-scale” or “insignificant” in a general colloquial sense, and was applied to things that had no connection to actual horses, as it still often is…

*Thanks for reading!*