Amanda in Tucson, Arizona, dislikes the phrase kill two birds with one stone and wants to popularize a non-violent alternative: feed two birds with one seed. An Alaska listener once suggested the phrase save two birds with one stone, perhaps implying the idea of scaring off birds without harming them. In the 18th century, two similar expressions were to stop two mouths with one morsel and to make two friends with one gift. The organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has suggested using feed two birds with one scone, as well as replacing bring home the bacon with bring home the bagel and beat a dead horse and feed a fed horse. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Alternatives to “Kill Two Birds with One Stone””
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, how’s it going?
My name is Amanda Smith, and I live in Tucson, Arizona. And I’m so excited to be on your show.
Oh my goodness, this is great.
We’re excited to have you, Amanda.
So I was calling in because I have a friend who always uses this phrase, feed two birds with one seed, which is of course a nonviolent alternative for kill two birds with one stone, which is hard for me to even say. And so I was calling because I always assumed that she invented this phrase because she’s a very caring and thoughtful, creative person. And so I know now that that’s not the case, but I don’t know where it originated. And I wondered also if you guys had other suggestions for idiom alternatives that were less violent or more up to date or other things like that, clever phrases that we can use to replace some of these more outdated ones. So instead of saying kill two birds with one stone, that is do something really super efficiently, she says feed two birds with one seed, right?
That’s right. You know what, Amanda, I have been saying that myself for decades now, ever since a friend of mine who grew up in Brazil said that’s what she said growing up, feed two birds with one seed. I understand why people want to do that because of the reasons that you suggested. There are different ways to say it. I’m looking at a 1737 collection of English proverbs that has some alternatives that were used back in the 18th century to stop two mouths with one morsel and to make two friends with one gift. I mean, I choose to say feed two birds with one seed. Some people say feed two birds with one scone, which rhymes. You know, I can also see the other side of that, which is that it’s really baked into the language. You know, it’s an old, old, old expression. I don’t know. Grant has been around for hundreds of years. Yeah, just this idea of killing the birds, though. I can get where people are put off by that violence, put off by that verb. It is easy, with just a tiny bit of practice, to replace those expressions in your speech if you want to. The effort that we’re going to go to, Amanda, to replace those is a lot, and it takes a really long time to force out those old expressions. I know PETA, the animal rights organization, was one that suggested feed two birds with one scone. S-c-o-n-e. We had a listener in Sam in Healy, Alaska, suggested save two birds with one stone, which I think the ones that are close to the original have the best chance of success. So the idea with saving two birds is that you’re throwing the rock but not at the birds, just to scare them away. So, and you’ll still keep them out of your garden or your crops or whatever just by throwing the stone, which is your goal with killing maybe in the first place.
Interesting. I think this is really thought provoking, and we’re going to have a lot of reaction to this. I’ve seen other attempts to replace violent language involving animals. And Lord knows that the English language is in many ways an awful record of how humans have treated animals through the years. You know, language from cockfighting or horse racing. I mean, beat a dead horse. You know, some people now say feed a fed horse, you know, which is, I don’t know that that’s going to work. I don’t know that people will pick that up. Or instead of bring home the bacon, bring home the bagels.
Oh, yeah, that was another one Peter recommended. Sometimes it feels like doing too much mental gymnastics. I don’t know. I’m conflicted about this. What do you think, Amanda?
Well, I’m definitely a proponent of everybody using the language that matches their personal values. And I think that it’s nice to have alternatives that are gentler for those of us who are like more of a gentle nature. But I also really appreciate the roots and culture that some of these phrases have. I mean, it’s interesting to think about that phrase coming from protecting a garden, which is something I think you said, Grant. It’s also really interesting to me to think about how your friend that you originally heard the alternative was coming from Brazil. So how there are all these different ways of essentially saying the same thing, depending on where you come from.
Right. And I don’t think that it was necessarily a Portuguese phrase. She just happened to to pick it up while she was there during her childhood. But I think what’s also key about that story is that it changed the way that I use the language personally. And I have had that experience as well when I use that phrase. You know, there’s a little light bulb that goes on over some people’s heads and they pick it up as well. So you may be helping feed two birds with one seed to go viral, Amanda.
Well, that was somewhat the goal. I’m not going to lie. And I’m going to start using feed a fed horse. So I know we’re going to hear about this from our listeners. Strong opinions probably on both sides of that. So I really appreciate your starting a conversation about it. Thanks so much for taking my call and keep up the wonderful work.
Thank you so much.
Our pleasure, Amanda. Call us again sometime.
Okay. Bye-bye.
Take care.
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