Bite the Farm

Hey there, you have A Way with Words.

Hey, this is Louie calling from the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Well, hey, I wanted to ask you guys about a turn of phrase that I heard my dad use a few summers ago.

It’s kind of a one-off moment that’s been ringing in my ears for the last few years, so I’ll set the scene for you.

We were hosting a family reunion out here in the hills, and we thought it would be fun to bring our extended family all out to the lake for an evening picnic.

And we rented some paddle boards so the younger contingency could all float out on the water.

So there I was out floating.

And my girlfriend, whose first time it was meeting all my extended family, was out there with me.

And her sunglasses were perched on the top of her head.

And they slipped backwards.

And in an effort to grab them, she tipped herself completely backwards and went somersaulting into the water in front of the hole.

Family, gang. Right. And so in this moment, my dad, who was out on the paddleboards with us, he exclaimed these words. He said, Oh, bit the farm.

And I was like scratching my head. I mean, I’ve, I’ve never heard him use this expression. Like, where did that come from? Also, we’re on a lake. So is that even appropriate right here?

I thought you guys could help me figure that one out.

Well, first of all, that definitely sounds like a family legend in the making.

That’s a hundred year story right there.

Bit the farm.

That’s a good one.

Yeah, it’s got a ring to it, doesn’t it?

It totally does.

It sounds like a mix of two expressions, though, doesn’t it?

Bite the dust and buy the farm.

Yeah, there you go.

And they both kind of mean either to crash or to die.

If you bite the dust, you kind of fall face first.

And if you buy the farm, you crash headfirst into the ground.

Both these expressions have a long history.

So it sounds like kind of almost a malapropism, a mixed metaphor.

A dadism.

A dadism, where he’s combined these in the heat of the moment, and the excitement of the enthusiasm he had for captioning this moment.

Bite the dust comes from this idea that if you’re in or on the ground, your mouth could be said to be full of dirt or dust.

If you’re buried, your mouth is full of dirt or dust.

And bite the farm actually has an interesting history.

It goes back to the military.

People who flew jets in the early days were said to, if they crashed, the idea was that if they left behind family, that family would either get a big insurance payout or would sue the government and either way get enough money to pay off the mortgage to buy their property, theoretically a farm.

Hypothetically.

Oh, there you go.

Yeah, so they would literally buy the farm.

Although another idea was that what they were buying was their worm farm, their cemetery plot.

I do like bit the farm, though.

Yeah, bit the farm.

I like it.

It kind of reminded me of like, oh, I ate it.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

I really ate it.

Or I biffed it.

Biffed it, yeah.

Biffed it, yeah, there you go.

But it’s a mixed metaphor on the same lines as it’s not rocket surgery, which is a mix of it’s not rocket science and it’s not brain surgery.

Yeah.

Okay.

I see what you mean.

Yeah.

Well, Louie, two questions for you.

Did your girlfriend find her glasses and her sunglasses and what kind of impression did she make on the fam?

The glasses are at the bottom of the lake and we haven’t gone back for them.

And thankfully, someone in the family, since everyone had just arrived, someone had their suitcase full of dry clothes for her.

So, yeah, it became a story we told again and again that week.

And, yeah, she’s pretty well embedded in the family at this point.

Is she still the girlfriend or is it something more now?

Oh, we’ll see.

We’ll see.

Oh, get with it, Louie.

Get with the program.

I’m doing my best out here.

All right.

Tell us she didn’t bit the fam.

No, she really face-planted herself into the family in that moment.

All right, we’ll give her our best.

Sounds like she’s good-natured in putting up with the teasing.

Yeah, no kidding.

She gets a lot of it from me, that’s for sure.

All right, well, take care of yourself.

Watch out for backwards tilts on the lake.

Thanks, guys.

Love the show.

Yeah, thank you.

Thanks, Louis.

Take care of yourself.

Bye-bye.

Bye for now.

Well, seize your phone and give us a call, 877-929-9673.