Charlie Horses

[bertine]

Last night I kept waking up with Charlie Horses which I forgot about until I just went to stand up and got one in my right calf.

Anyways, I know I could look it up but I wonder how a cramp in your calf became known as a Charlie Horse.

Comments

[ctakahara.livejournal.com]

The etymology of it's fairly fascinating. It may stem from a pitcher whose name was Charlie and nickname was "Old Hoss" who often had cramps, or from a horse who used to work at Comiskey Park - regardless, it pretty much seems to be a baseball term.

Wikipedia informs me that the Norwegian term for the same phenomenon means "thigh hen." But in Denmark, it's a "wooden thigh." Also this possible origin: "The term may also reference Charlie "Bucket" McCormick, who was said to wander the streets of Altoona in the late 1800s and massage the calf muscles of the horses who would deliver bushels of rye to local Shriners. The Shriners used this rye for bootleg whiskey, and so the horses needed to have strong calf muscles to outrun the tax collecting authorities."

Sorry for the wall of text, Charley horses are just fascinating to me because it's such a weird term.

[bertine.livejournal.com]

I read that too but the first part "thigh hen" and stuff has too do with something other than cramps. It is an injury of the leg somehow. I don't think I have that.


Yeah, I agree with the weirdness of the term. I am totally ok with you doing my research for me. :)