Tuesday, January 20, 2026

GAD Mystery Word of the Day

 


My new bookish meme for 2026: the Golden Age of Detection (GAD) Mystery Word of the Day. Whenever I find a word that I'm unfamiliar with--or shall we say not absolutely confident I know the exact meaning of, I'm going to actually take time to look it up and share it with mystery-lovers everywhere. 😊

Today's GAD Mystery Word (phrase) of the Day is Mazeppa's horses. From a famous legend, popularized by Lord Byron's poem, where the historical Ukrainian figure Ivan Mazepa was punished for an affair by being tied naked to a wild horse and left to race across the steppe, often depicted in art with the horse surrounded by other horses or in dramatic flight. The horse eventually carried him to safety.

...Freddy asked me to lunch the other day. I wasn't keen , and if I'd known beforehand what Papa Borth was like, all Mazeppa's horses wouldn't have got me there. (~Shadows Before by Dorothy Bowers)

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