horse latitudes

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See also: horse-latitudes and Horse Latitudes

English

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Alternative forms

Etymology

Various theories; probably from a sailors' ritual of parading a straw-stuffed effigy of a horse around the deck before throwing it overboard.

Noun

horse latitudes pl (plural only)

  1. (informal, geography, meteorology) The warm, subtropical bands which encircle the globe between approximately 30 and 35 degrees both north and south of the Equator, characterized by high atmospheric pressure and dry variable winds ranging from calm to light.
    • 1866, Victor Hugo, chapter 6, in W. Moy Thomas, transl., Toilers of the Sea:
      At the equator, an immense mist seems permanently to encircle the globe. It is known as the cloud-ring. The function of the cloud-ring is to temper the heat of the tropics. . . . These are what are called horse latitudes. It was here that navigators of bygone ages were accustomed to cast their horses into the sea to lighten the ship in stormy weather.
    • 1945 May, “What is Weather?”, in Flying Magazine, volume 36, number 5, page 31:
      The north boundary of Zone A is a belt of high barometric pressure known to many generations of seafaring men as the "Horse Latitudes." Here air currents are divergent and there is relatively low humidity.
    • 1999 August 15, Lance Morrow, “Captains Courageous”, in Time:
      The 27,000-mile course starts in November in the Bay of Biscay on the coast of France; points south through the horse latitudes and doldrums, past Africa to the bottom of the world; rounds Cape Horn; then turns north to home.
    • 2011, Dominic Smith, Bright and Distant Shores‎, →ISBN, page 125:
      The captain used the idle Horse Latitudes to train and prepare the remainder of the crew.
  2. (figuratively) A condition of relative inactivity, calm, or lethargy.
    • 1961 December 15, “State of Business: Hardening the Soft Spots”, in Time:
      After months in the horse latitudes, retail and auto sales are scudding along at a brisk pace.
    • 1991 July 23, Woody Hochswender, “Patterns”, in New York Times, retrieved 14 May 2013:
      These are the horse latitudes of fashion, when it's O.K. not to think about clothes, if only for 15 minutes.
    • 2000 July 24, Froma Harrop, “When a tax-free Internet robs the states, guess who they will tax?”, in Free Lance-Star, retrieved 16 May 2013, page A9:
      The Senate version of the House measure now bobs quietly in the horse latitudes of legislative inaction.
    • 2006 July 8, Bob Ekstrom, “One Amazin’ Debacle”, in Sports Central, retrieved 16 May 2013:
      The Mets were once the clipper ship of baseball, but a demoralizing 4-8 run against the American League East has left them adrift in the horse latitudes.

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