#14005
12/28/2000 9:36 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I received an e-mail message today informing me that on old chum had "bought the farm." While I appreciate and understand the complusion to euphemise death, where could this phrase have found its origin?
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#14006
12/28/2000 10:35 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 130
member
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member
Joined: Dec 2000
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I believe it had to do with American aviators' widows being able to pay off the outstanding mortgages on their farms. The government sent them a consolation check after their husbands died in the line of duty. I think it originally referred to plane crashes in the Second World War.
Any more info, anybody?
BTW, sorry about your friend.
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#14007
12/28/2000 10:38 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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this was first used during WWII for "died in action"; the story goes like this:
Young soldiers often asked one another what they planned to do when they returned home after the war. A common reply from those hailing from rural regions was that, upon returning, he would marry his girlfriend, buy a farm near his home, and raise children. Upon hearing of the death in action of such a fellow, a man would say with sad sarcasm, "He's bought his farm."
on a related note, I used to play pocket billiards with an old fellow who, when I set him up for a game-ending runout, would intone, "Now you've sold the farm."
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#14008
12/29/2000 1:03 AM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I received this privately from a member of this board today and it is too good not to share with you all:
The expression has been around fliers and Air Force types for ages. I heard it in WWII and my Mother told me she had heard it in days of barnstormers (1920s.)
I've heard a lot of tales but the one that seems to make the most COMMON sense is that in early days of flight planes often crashed. Pilots usually tried to avoid populated areas and put down planes or crashed generally on farmlands. How it connects I don't know or have forgotten.
It will be interesting hear what others ( of a generation or 2 or 3 younger) have to offer!
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#14010
12/29/2000 3:53 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Fr. Steve:
I've worked around AF types for going on twenty years now. To me the phrase means that you bought a very small farm, 3 feet wide, 6 feet long and 6 feet deep.
TEd
TEd
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#14011
12/29/2000 4:43 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 130
member
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member
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 130 |
Another term for crashing an aircraft was "auguring in", also from Tom Wolfe's great book, The Right Stuff. Sounds pretty self-explanatory to me.
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#14012
12/29/2000 6:38 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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The version I first heard involved sailors and the rationale was that it was every sailor's dream to get as far away from the sea as possible and that the best way to do that was to become a farmer.
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#14013
12/29/2000 6:52 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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There are so many of these euphemisms in English. Kick the bucket, bought the big one, bought the farm…but I know of none in French. The closest thing I came up with is when someone is speaking to a very young child (below 6 or 7 years of age) they might say that the person “went to heaven,” but that is about it. I wonder why.
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#14014
12/29/2000 8:05 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
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It strikes me that Americans (in particular) will do almost anything to avoid saying, flatly, that somebody died. We say that he "passed on" or is "no longer with us" or "is in a better place" or "has gone to be with God" or "rests eternally" or any damn thing except died.
It would seem to me both psychologically and spiritually healthier to face death squarely and say it when it happens.
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#14015
12/29/2000 9:13 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Father Steve mentioned that It strikes me that Americans (in particular) will do almost anything to avoid saying, flatly, that somebody died.
One of the best treatments of death I have ever seen on television was when Big Bird explained to a young a girl on Sesame Street what it meant that Mr. Hooper had died. It was clear, simple, devoid of theology and euphemism - a remarkable example of what makes Sesame Street such an outstanding programme.
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#14016
12/29/2000 9:18 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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The episode of Sesame Street to which Max refers is, perhaps, the best thing ever done by the Children's Television Worskshop. It had a great impact on my family, where we were able to "fill in" the theology which was (appropriately) missing from the program.
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#14017
01/03/2001 8:13 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 163
member
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member
Joined: Mar 2000
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> There are so many of these euphemisms in English. Kick the bucket, bought the big one, bought the farm…but I know of none in French.
Curious, it seems to be the same in Spanish. The only ones I can remember now are about being growing pines or mallows or any other plant you can find in a cemetery.
Juan Maria.
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#14018
01/03/2001 8:16 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544 |
Spanish does have a lovely (vaguely related) metaphor about poverty however: "no tiene donde caerse muerto," which basically means that someone is so poor "they don't even have a place to drop dead."
Always liked that one.
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#14019
01/04/2001 5:50 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
In reply to:
no tiene donde caerse muerto
This brings to mind the acme of poverty (if that's not an oxymoron), which was the viper who was so poor he didn't have a pit to hiss in.
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#14020
01/04/2001 9:04 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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belMarduk contributes: Kick the bucket, bought the big one
Pushing up daisies.
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#14021
01/04/2001 9:11 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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...am getting flashbacks to MP's 'dead parrot' sketch. 
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#14022
01/04/2001 9:45 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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English has an old poetic tradition of substitute phrases (there's probably a better term for it) originally for the purpose of facilitating alliteration in epic poetry, e.g., whale's road for the sea.
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#14023
01/04/2001 10:06 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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tsuwm muses: ...am getting flashbacks to MP's 'dead parrot' sketch.. Well, at least no one has tried to pass "it'd be lying in the bottom of the cage if it wasn't nailed to the perch!" off as a euphemism for croaking it.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#14024
01/04/2001 10:28 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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tsuwm observed that he was getting flashbacks to MP's 'dead parrot' sketch.We have a winner! What could be a lovelier euphemism for experiencing a negative patient healthcare outcome than "pining for the fjords"?!
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#14025
01/04/2001 10:29 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094 |
English has an old poetic tradition of substitute phrases (there's probably a better term for it) originally for the purpose of facilitating alliteration in epic poetry, e.g., whale's road for the sea.
It's called a kenning.
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#14026
01/05/2001 12:27 AM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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jazz declaims: It's called a kenning.
so it is; it's a Scottish verbal noun, having several senses; one being: 6. One of the periphrastic expressions used instead of the simple name of a thing, characteristic of Old Teutonic, and esp. Old Norse, poetry.
I particularly enjoyed this citation: 1896 Scott. Rev. Oct. 342 note, The kennings for ‘man’ in Gröndal's Clavis Poetica extend to 33 closely printed columns.
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#14027
01/05/2001 12:49 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 35
newbie
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newbie
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 35 |
My father was killed in a plane crash just before the end of WWII and oddly, I have never heard this expression relating to his death.
I have heard it in another context, however: when someone has been "taken" for all they're worth, they are said to have "bought the farm".
Has anyone else heard it in this context?
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#14028
01/05/2001 3:30 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
When you allow yourself to be taken, esp. in a poker game, you are said to have sold the farm.
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