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#135853 12/09/04 07:26 PM
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tsuwm Offline OP
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Bill Bryson, in The Mother Tongue mentions in passing the phrase "root hog or die", which I questioned in today's wwftd entry. so far I've had two(2) responses that don't mesh all that well:

1. a link to a song with this title, which uses the phrase as a pick-up line for the chorus - punctuated Root, hog, or die. http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/usa/roothog.htm

2. and this:
I played football when I was in college, and we had a drill called Dig Dig Little Pig - Root Hog or Die
It had two linemen facing each other, a ball carrier and a would-be tackler. The coach took great joy in squealing out that name when it was time for the drill. The players didn't like it much because everyone got beat to death.


in the first verse of the song(1) we find: Big pig or little pig Root, hog, or die
which closely tracks the football drill: Dig Dig Little Pig - Root Hog or Die.

is anyone out there familiar with any of this?


#135854 12/09/04 09:01 PM
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I've heard the phrase infrequently. It has always seemed to be functionally similar to "sink or swim." I've never heard it used in a song and don't know anything about football.

k



#135855 12/09/04 09:28 PM
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tsuwm Offline OP
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dr.bill suggests it should be taken as a literal command to a Colonial Pig. (from thence it could be transferred as you suggest, FF)


#135856 12/10/04 03:48 AM
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A pig in a pen can just wait for the farmer to come feed him, but a wild hog has to find his own food, mostly by digging or "rooting" in the ground...or finding another acorn! In other words, You're on your own!


#135857 12/10/04 06:50 AM
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"sink or swim." - In German, there is a phrase that matches the sense even more closely: "Vogel friss oder stirb" ,i.e. Bird, eat or die.


#135858 12/10/04 10:44 AM
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The academic version:

Publish or perish.


#135859 12/10/04 11:37 AM
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Is there a work ethic element to this as well?

Somewhere I've heard: "All God's critters gotta scratch fer a livin'."


#135860 12/10/04 12:48 PM
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The pop grammar version:

Eats Shoots and Leaves.


#135861 12/10/04 01:31 PM
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Although I think the ‘sink or swim’ interpretation is the most plausible, and makes the most sense, when I first read the ‘root hog, or die’ expression, the initial image that popped into my head was someone threatening a pig to root for truffles, and find them, or be made into ham, meaning, more or less, “you will be of use to me, one way or the other, pig: one way you can live; one way you can die.”


#135862 12/10/04 02:08 PM
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initial image that popped into my head was someone threatening a pig to root for truffles, and find them or be made into ham


Never occurred to me in that sense. I've seen pigs on the farm, but not very close. More to the point I've seen them root on television - and even that was nothing so graphic or informative as the description Bill limned for me.

k



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