Buy the farm

[Wilson Gray]

FWIW, I'm with Dave.

-Wilson

On 11/12/07, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Buy the farm
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> There are variations of "buy it" or "buy one," referring to death or defeat
> in battle, dating back to the early 19th century.
>
> The "farm" is likely a euphemism for a grave, a piece of land, as it were,
> perhaps facetiously doubling for the desire to buy agricultural land after
> the war. "Bought a plot" appears by 1954. "Buy the farm" appears in print a
> year later.
>
> Partridge also claims WWI slang "become a landowner," meaning to die. But as
> is often the case with him, evidence for this is lacking.
>
> See http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/more/209/
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
> George Thompson
> Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 5:45 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Buy the farm
>
> This tune is also on a 4-CD box-set from Proper, Bud Powell, Tempus
> Fugue-It, on CD #1, Blue Garden Blues, track 4, recorded January 4, 1944.
>
> Unfortunately, what I hear is:
> Some will take the factory/That won't do no harm/Got to do some war work,
> baby/ Guess I'll take the farm.
> I don't know no aircraft,/I just play a horn/Got to do some war work, baby/
> Guess I'll take the farm.
> Since we've got to work or fight ***
>
> If I recall, the last time we discussed this expression, there was a
> disposition to accept an explanation that the phrase was originated by test
> pilots, who were thinking that when a test pilot crashed, the occupant of
> the land his plane hit got a settlement that enabled him to buy it, or pay
> off the mortgage.  The pilot was thus buying the farm for someone else.
> This doesn't seem a likely story to me.  I connect it with the dream of all
> men doing a dangerous job, whether test pilots or librarians -- well, maybe
> not librarians -- "I'm not going to do this much longer, you know.  In a
> year or so I'm going to go back home, buy a farm and settle down."  When he
> crashes his plane, his comrades say, "Well, old Joe finally bought the
> farm."
>
> Speaking of test pilots and librarians, I have retired from the
> proving-ground for mediocrity where I have been employed these last few
> decades, so you-uns will not in the future be seeing messages from me
> describing strange and border-line useless books as "available at better
> libraries everywhere", which has always signified, "available at Bobst
> Library, because I ordered it".
>
> GAT
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ.
> Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: neil <neil at TYPOG.CO.UK>
> Date: Monday, November 12, 2007 9:56 am
> Subject: Buy the farm
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>
> > 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...
> >
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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