Horsefeathers

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For the 1932 film, see Horse Feathers

"Horsefeathers" is a term used to say that something is nonsense, often used as an exclamation after hearing something which one totally disagrees with. It is supposed to imply that an idea is as silly or as unbelievable as horses having feathers. The word is fairly new in origin; its first recorded use was in 1927, perhaps as a polite replacement for "horseshit". "Bull butter" is a similar euphemism, alluding to the absurdity as a bull producing butter, and at the same time avoiding the profanity of "BS".

Since horses are mammals and not birds, horses do not have feathers, but there are a few mythical creatures which are horses (at least in part) which have feathers, e.g. the hippogriff and pegasus.

The word may also have originated from the now-archaic builder's term "horse feathers", meaning feathering strips in roofing.

In journalism, horsefeathers is sometimes used as a bracketed substitution for the word "bullshit" in a quotation, when it would not be appropriate to reproduce profanity.