Wild Goose Chase

Shakespeare gets the credit for this one, from Romeo and Juliet, where Mercutio tells Romeo, "Nay, if our wits run the wild-goose chase, I am done." But the original meaning had nothing to do with hunting a goose. A "wild goose chase" was a real type of horse race, where riders had to follow a lead horse at a set distance, mimicking the loose, changeable formation of wild geese in flight, a sport documented in Gervase Markham's 1593 riding manual, published just before Shakespeare's play. Only later did the phrase drift toward its modern sense of a pointless, erratic pursuit.