Listener Crossword No. 4843 Excuses,...
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Goosebumps
6 Answers
Where does the term goose bumps come from?
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It's linked to an old superstition that everyone is psychically linked to the piece of ground that will contain their body after death. The belief is that if a goose walks over the ground, you will feel a psychic 'shiver' - when the hair folicles in your skin contract - hence the term 'goosebumps'. The phrase has expanded in modern times to 'Someone has just walked over my grave' to explain a similar reaction.
I'm sorry but I think there's a simpler, more mundane explanation than that of Andy Hughes, above. The pimply appearance of flesh which is experiencing goose bumps, because of cold, fear etc, looks like the flesh of a plucked goose (or other bird). And if you feel someone's goose bumpy arm, in addition to the pimples, it has the same cold, clammy feel as a plucked bird.
Perhaps there's a clue in your nickname, Yankee. You see, 'goose bumps' - which first appeared in writing in the 1930s - was simply an American version of the older British word 'gooseflesh' to describe this skin condition. Of course, many of US have now adopted YOUR version! Even ours did not occur before 1810, so it seems rather late to have anything to do with grave-superstitions. Both refer to the plucked clamminess idea, as suggested by Geofbob above.
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