Buy the farm

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Mon, Nov 12, 2007 at 02:54:41PM +0000, neil wrote:
> I note that RHDAS gives a date of 1954 for 'buy the farm' with the sense of
> 'to die'.
>
> I was listening to 'Early Bud Powell 1944-1946' at the weekend in Somerset.
> The fourth track, by Cootie Williams Sextet, recorded on 4 January 1944, is
> titled 'Gotta Do Some War Work'.
>
> The refrain makes mention of "buy the farm".
>
> If anyone's interested I could transcribe the words, next time I'm in the
> country...

Yes please!

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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