On the hoof expression

A friend has asked me if they can say: I said those words on the hoof.

It doesn’t sound right to me as I’m used to hearing it with eating: I had to grab lunch on the hoof.

Is it correct, and if so, why?

Solution 1:

If the sense that your friend meant to convey was "extemporaneously," several other expressions might be more suitable to use—at least in idiomatic U.S. English. Three such options appear in Christine Ammer, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, second edition (2013):

off the cuff Impromptu, extemporaneous, as in His speech was entirely off the cuff. This term supposedly alludes to the practice of speakers making last-minute notes on the cuff of a shirtsleeve. {1930s}

and

off the top of one's head In an impromptu way, without much thought, as in Off the top of my head I'd say we'll double our profits in a year. This idiom suggests one has not used the inside of one's head before making some statement. {Mid-1900s}

and

on the fly in a hurry, on the run, as in I picked up some groceries on the fly. The transfer of this expression, which literally means"in midair or in flight," dates from the mid-1800s.

Ammer doesn't include an entry for "on the hoof," but it certainly is idiomatic. An early literal occurrence of the phrase appears in an untitled item in the [Vincennes, Indiana] Western Sun (February 1814):

It is stated in a Boston paper that the persons who lately supplied the Majestic 74 with 13 head of live cattle, in Cape Harbor, have been brought to town and lodged in jail for safe keeping on a charge of high treason[.] It is said they received 6d sterling per lb. on the hoof.

The episode described in this news item involved U.S. procurers supplying cattle to a British ship during the so-called War of 1812 (which actually ran from June 1812 to February 1815). The payment per pound "on the hoof" refers to payment for the full weight of the live animals rather than for the weight of their skinned, butchered, edible carcasses. References to "on the hoof" cattle and beef prices are quite common in U.S. newspapers from the 1830s onward.

From this literal origin, "on the hoof" came to be mean, more broadly, "alive" or "in the wild" or "in [one's] natural state" or "in person" or "on foot," whether or not the thing so described has hooves. An example of such usage appears in Bob Geggie, "Check Stand," in the San Bernardino [California] Sun (March 8, 1960):

Interested in pearls? You can buy them "on the hoof" at Sage's.

The cultured pearls are in canned live oysters from Japan's famed Ago Bay. Tiny grains of sand are inserted in the shell, and the oysters, annoyed at the intrusion, slowly manufacture layer upon layer of pearl around the sand.

Here, "on the hoof" seems to have the figurative meaning "in whole, unprocessed form," since the "canned live oysters" are surely dead by the time they reach the grocery store.

Even more figurative is this instance from an advertisement for Caterpillar farm machinery in the Canberra [Australia] Times (June 24, 1960):

Here's low-cost mobile diesel power "on the hoof." The thrifty Cat Diesel Engine saves big money—runs on non-premium, low-cost diesel fuel—consumes about half the quantity of fuel burned by spark ignition engines of similar horsepower.

To the extent that horsepower provides a link to hoofed animals, the reference to "on the hoof" has some echo of the old literal sense of the expression, but idiomatically it means something closer to "on your farm."

The in-person sense of "on the hoof" appears in the Gordons, "Operation Terror," in Australian Women's Weekly (December 14, 1960):

The boy said, "These are my friends." He turned to the others. "This is the man I was telling you fellows about."

Rip said hello, and they said nothing. They just stared. A living, breathing F.B.I. man on the hoof.

An Elephind newspaper database search did turn up one instance of "on the hoof" that comes very close to the sense that the poster's friend seems to have had in mind. From Larry Elliott & David Hearst, "Russian Bait Buried Under Red Tape," in the Canberra [Australia] Times (July 14, 1992):

And, with a bit of quiet reflection, it was obvious that, if Mr Yeltsin were doing more than merely playing for time or making policy on the hoof, his initiative would face obstacles daunting enough to kill the idea stone dead.

In this article, "making policy on the hoof" clearly means something similar to "making policy extemporaneously or on the fly or off the cuff or off the top of his head. Nevertheless, the use of "on the hoof" in this idiomatic sense does not seem to be widespread.

Solution 2:

on the hoof TFD an idiom

done quickly in response to something else.

As in:

We don't have time to agonize here—we need to make a decision on the hoof.

The literal Etymonline.com: phrase on the hoof is from 1750 as "walking;" later it was cattlemen and butchers' slang for "not (yet) slaughtered."

If you grabbed lunch on the hoof (your question), you did it quickly as to cause no delay!