If you’re coming to the lick log or bringing someone to the lick log, you’re getting to a crucial point in negotiations. A lick log is a salt lick being a place where a cattle or other herd animals congregates. This is part of a complete episode...
Jean in Greenville, South Carolina, shares a funny story about learning the term locoweed, which she learned from watching lots of Westerns as a child. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “A Child Hears About Locoweed” Jean Anderson...
Is the brand in brand-new connected to the kind of brand left by a hot iron? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “”Brand” in “Brand New”” Hello, welcome to A Way with Words. Hi, this is Giovanni Cruz from Dallas, Texas. Hi, Giovanni...
A caller from Deer River, Minnesota, has lots of experience raising ruminants and wonders if the word ruminate, as in “to ponder or muse about something” stems from the image of such an animal chewing regurgitated cud. Indeed it does. In classical...
If you’re “down to the lick log,” you’re close to the end of negotiations, or nearing some kind of decision. This expression is associated with cattle ranching, a salt lick being a place where the herd congregates. The 19th-century frontiersman Davy...
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...