1299 Rearin’

It’s funny how words mean the reverse of what you think they do sometimes. Here’s two entirely unrelated examples.
First, when I was a kid, I heard of the John Birch Society. I knew the Audubon Society, which liked birds, was named after John James Audubon. I’d heard the founder of the Sierra Club, who liked mountains and stuff, was John Muir. So I figured the John Birch Society was filled with people who liked trees.
Sort of like Johnny Appleseed or something. Going around planting birch trees everywhere. When the civil rights movement broke out in the early sixties, I couldn’t figure out why John Birchers hated minorities so much. Hmm...
Second, the other day a friend of mine wrote me an email saying she was rearin’ to go. And she spelled it r-e-a-r-i-n-apostrophe. I had always thought it was spelled r-a-r-i-n-apostrophe, but upon reflection, I realized I had never actually spelled it before, although I had pronounced it “rare-in” a million times.
But, in fact, the word comes from the description of a horse rearing up, and apparently getting ready to head out with some degree of vigor. And it just started to be pronounced with a little more rare and a little less rear over the years...or is the yares?
So next question: Why do they say a horse is rearing when it’s the front part that goes up? I mean, if it was bucking its rear end and kicking out its back legs that would be pretty rear oriented to me. But it’s lifting its front legs and head and stuff. And it’s ready to head frontward. If it was rearing to go, you’d expect it was ready to back up.
So paradoxically, rearing means the reverse of reversing.
Hmm.
America, ya gotta love it.