Lick That Off The Grass

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, Grant. Hi, Martha.

Hi, who’s this?

Hi.

This is Andrea calling from Providence, Rhode Island.

Welcome to the show.

Hey.

What’s up?

Thank you. Love the show.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for having me on.

Yeah, sure.

Sure thing. What’s up?

So I have a question for you.

My partner came home from taking our niece to a gymnastics class a couple months ago, and she was describing what it was like to watch her.

And she said, you know, she sort of marches to her own beat.

She’s kind of in her own world.

She’s not really doing what the rest of the kids are doing, but she’s having fun nonetheless.

And I said, well, she certainly didn’t lick that off the grass.

And my partner said, what are you talking about with lick that off the grass?

And I said, you know, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

So we had this conversation about where in the world I heard that.

And we have no idea.

I’ve asked everyone I know.

I’ve asked my family.

I’ve asked her family.

I’ve asked friends.

And nobody’s ever even heard of it.

But you’re the only one?

I’m the only one.

And you’re in Providence?

Yeah, and we’re in Providence.

And Andrea, where are you from originally?

Newport, Rhode Island.

Oh, Newport, Rhode Island.

Okay.

That’s interesting.

So to say she didn’t lick it off the grass means…

She doesn’t lick it off the grass.

How did you put it?

She doesn’t lick it…

In this case, I said she didn’t lick that off the grass, meaning the sort of march to your own, you know, tune, sort of do your own thing, be in your own land, you know, that kind of thing.

Yeah, that’s my sense of the term, that it’s the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree or you didn’t pick it up on the street.

You inherited it.

Yeah, yeah.

It came in your genes.

Yeah, your genes or you picked up a behavior from your relative or something like that.

Right, right.

And I’m not sure of the origin.

I do know that it’s often associated with the Irish.

Do you have any Irish in your background?

That is hysterical that you said that.

My partner is fully Irish, and one of the first people I asked was her brother John, who’s a creative writing professor.

And he wrote back, I don’t know, but it’s certainly not Irish because we’re far more poetic with our metaphors.

Wait till I tell him that.

That’s funny.

I don’t think he hangs out in the pub enough.

Oh, that’s great.

Yeah, I’ve seen many, many references by people in especially Northern Ireland using that expression.

And I have a friend from Ireland who says that she uses it sort of in a sarcastic way.

Like if somebody says to her, oh, I didn’t realize you could fix that kind of broken chair, she would say, oh, I didn’t lick that off the grass.

Oh, I got it. Great.

What do you think?

Yeah.

Interesting.

So the idea here is that you acquire something from your environment, a trait or behavior or some kind of affliction even, rather than coming to it naturally through your family.

Right.

And I don’t know what it has to do with licking off the grass.

But I think it could be licking it off the table or whatever.

It certainly falls in the crasser levels, registers of slang, doesn’t it?

Well, you think it’s like a dog or something returning to its…

A dog, you know, eating its own sick, maybe.

I don’t know.

That’s great.

Yeah, we don’t have the origin, but we recognize the expression for sure.

Well, I appreciate that.

I’m not going crazy, so thank you.

No, you’re not going crazy.

Don’t know about your partner.

Thanks for calling, Andrea.

Thanks so much, guys.

Have a good day.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

Okay.

Bye-bye.

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