I was writing an e-mail to someone early this morning - early because I couldn't sleep last night, but that's a different story - and wanted to use the above expression, when it occurred to me that I didn't know which spelling to use...
So, off I went to trusty Google, where I found a number of speculations / explanations, the most satisfying to me of which I found at this URL: http://listserv.dom.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0404&L=stumpers-l&H=1&O=D&P=79741 and which I shamelessly reproduce here:
>Dear List, I recently heard someone say, "It's a pity his wife was such a wild hair/hare". Is the metaphor intended "wild hair" or "wild hare"? Is
it a regionalism? What does it mean? I'm sure the collective wisdom of the wombats will have a satisfactory answer! Dorothy
Hi Dorothy,
There are two expressions, wild hare and wild hair. The first refers to or compares someone or something to the natural skittishness of breeding
hares in spring, especially in March (ergo Lewis Carroll's inclusion of that creature in the Mad Hatter's tea party). To have a wild hair (up
one's butt) is a vulgar expression indicating an obsession or fixation of some sort. "Wild" in the first instance denotes erratic behavior like
that of hares in rut. In the second instance "wild" characterizes a stray or unruly strand whose indelicate lodgment is the figurative cause of someone's perceived mania.
John Dyson
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Posted by David at June 14, 2005 08:34 AM