keep a cow/have a cow

[Jonathan Lighter]

No evidence known to me, but, what the heck, it would save a syllable, be more visual, and make some kind of absurd "sense."

JL

Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
Subject: Re: keep a cow/have a cow
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Sun, 24 Apr 2005 08:47:27 -0700, Jan Kammert wrote:

>On Sat, 23 Apr 2005, Beverly Flanigan wrote:
>
>> My father (b. 1900, Minnesota) said the same thing (chase, that is).
Never
>> heard "keep a cow," but might there be some connection with the Simpsons'
>> "Don't have a cow"? I never watched the show, so I don't really know what
>> the phrase means.
>>
>In the mid-1960s around Chicago, we said have a cow to mean have a fit.

HDAS has a 1966 cite for "have a cow" from the Indiana University Folklore
Archives. And the similar "have kittens" goes all the back to 1900
(Dialect Notes).

It's been suggested on alt.usage.english that "have kittens" might have
originated as a mishearing/eggcornification of "have conniptions". Any
evidence for this theory?


--Ben Zimmer

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