"Plough with the favorite heifer", 1749

[Joel S. Berson]

Thanks for your previous, erudite message.  I missed the heifer 1.b
because I didn't try enough variations in my OED search.

But the OED still leaves me guessing at the meaning!  Or does
everyone have the same understanding of the passage from Judges?

Joel

At 6/7/2006 10:04 AM, you wrote:
>BTW:  Ending where we should have begun--the OED has an
>entry for the expression (heifer 1.b), with some non-
>scriptural instances.  EEBO gives many more.
>
>--Charlie
>____________________________________
>
>---- Original message ----
> >Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 09:37:36 -0400
> >From: Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> >Subject: Re: "Plough with the favorite heifer", 1749
> >To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >
> >---------------------- Information from the mail header ----
>-------------------
> >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-
>L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> >Subject:      Re: "Plough with the favorite heifer", 1749
> >------------------------------------------------------------
>-------------------
> >
> >If the English language was good enough for Samson . . . .
> >
> >In Wycliff's translation, the Philistines plowed with
> >Samson's "she calf."  For Coverdale, it was just "my calf"
> >(was he sanitizing?).  "Heifer" seem to have become standard
> >with the so-called Bishops' Bible of 1568, followed by
> >Geneva (1587), Rheims Douai (1609), and KJV (1611).
> >
> >In the Vulgate, it's "arassetis in vitula mea"; that "in" is
> >kind of interesting--since (unlike "cum") it can mean "in"
> >as well as "with."  But little is definitively known
> >regarding St. Jerome's feelings about heifers.
> >
> >I don't know what the Hebrew says or implies--or when or
> >whether the whole phrase became an idiom or stock metaphor!
> >
> >--Charlie
>
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