When someone says they should be bored for the hollow horn, it’s typically a lighthearted way of saying they should have their own head examined. The saying comes from an old supposed disease of cattle that made them dull and lethargic, and diagnosed by boring a hole in one of their horns. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Bored for the Hollow Horn”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, how are you? This is Susan Bulla from Fort Worth, Texas.
Hi, Susan. Welcome to the program. How are you?
I’m wonderful. Thank you very much. It’s great to be talking to you all.
Great to have you on the show. How can we help you?
There is an expression that I have heard my grandmother use throughout my life, and I have never heard anyone else use this at all. And when I have asked other people if they’d ever heard this expression, they were unfamiliar with it. And so I was just curious to know about its derivation and where it’s most commonly used, if at all.
The expression is bored for the holohorn. Bored for the holohorn.
And when would your grandmother use this?
In a self-deprecating way, when she was saying, I’m so foolish or I’m so crazy, I should have thought to do whatever she should. She would just say, I should be bored for the holohorn.
Okay.
And was she from Texas as well?
No, Mississippi.
Mississippi, okay.
Yeah, bored for the hollow horn has to do with a supposed disease of cattle. And it was a condition that took many different forms. It was kind of questionable, but basically if you had hollow horn, if you were a cow and you had hollow horn, it meant you had a dullness in the countenance. Maybe you were really wanting to lie down all the time. Why am I talking about cows in second person? I have no idea. Anyway.
Empathy.
Empathy.
But the cows are in need of help.
Yeah.
They’re dragging ass, basically. They’re not right. They’re just not right. Or maybe they’re kind of giddy and crazy. But this supposed disease hollow horn was diagnosed by boring a hole into the horn of the cow. And if the horn seemed hollow, that’s how they would diagnose the disease. And I’m not sure that it was a real thing.
Yeah, this is before veterinary medicine was a real thing.
Yeah.
And what I’ve read is that they would drill a hole down through the horn and then put medicine in there.
Yeah, sometimes turpentine, sometimes salt. Gunpowder even.
Yeah.
Yeah, it sounds terrible.
So if you’re smacking your forehead and saying, oh, I ought to be bored for the hollow horn, it means, you know, there’s something wrong with me. I should be checked out.
Yeah, yeah.
I need medical treatment.
Yes. Like I say, it was her way of saying, you know, I must be crazy, you know. I should be bored for the hollow horn.
Yeah.
There we go. Yeah, I think that’s a match.
Well, that’s interesting.
Well, that’s the best we can do. It sounds like they were applying veterinary terms to a human being. Thank you so much for the research and letting me know what she was actually talking about.
Sure thing. Thanks for calling.
Thanks, Susan.
I appreciate it.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
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