Cook Someone's Goose

Various forms of the phrase, including "do his goose for him" and "cook his goose," began appearing in British writing during the 1830s, with the first clearly recorded use of the modern phrase dated to 1851. What actually inspired the image has never been settled. One story claims a besieged medieval town displayed a goose from its walls to show it still had plenty of food, prompting furious attackers to burn the town down in response, effectively "cooking" that goose. Another ties it to the Bohemian religious reformer Jan Hus, whose name resembles "husa," the Czech word for goose, and who was burned at the stake in 1415. A third points, unconvincingly, to Aesop's fable of the goose that laid the golden eggs. None of these stories has ever been verified against the period when the phrase actually appears.