Charley horse

Origin

The term 'Charley horse' galloped into the American lexicon from the dusty baseball fields of the late 19th century. The most vivid tale points to a specific lame horse named Charley, who pulled the roller at the Chicago White Stockings ballpark in the 1880s. This old, stiff-legged equine often moved with a jerky, hobbled gait, much like a ballplayer suffering from a severe muscle cramp. The players, noticing the similarity between their painful, seized-up muscles and Charley's stiff-legged shuffle, began to humorously refer to their cramps as a 'Charley horse,' a nickname that quickly caught on and trotted its way into common usage.