It's improbable that 'bought the farm' comes from here but it's the literary illustration of it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Much_Land_Does_a_Man_Need%3F
2025-10-04 19:11:50
"buying the farm" sound more American to me. Although 'farmer' as a term already existed in the Middle Ages (yeoman farmer), one is more accustomed to 'peasant', and 'farm' sounds more USian. I guess 'farm(er)' has the connotation of 'free' while peasant implies 'tenant'. Iirc* the yeomanry was 'agriculturalists' actually owning their land but not being noble while a peasant was dependent on (of?) a landlord.
*too lazy to look it up
2025-10-04 19:03:47
Is the phrase American in origin?
2025-10-04 15:09:13
In German one bites the grass instead of the dust before watching the radish from below (no pushing up daisies)
2025-10-04 13:31:17
"(etwas) bis zur Vergasung (tun)" (to do something up to the gassing)
It means to (have to) do something beyond the point where it gets really annoying/cumbersome/intolerable, e.g. having to work overtime constantly or a sports trainer or PE teacher forcing yet another round around the stadium (and then another, and another...)
Originating from WW1 and popular in the inter-war years. Since WW2 there is a taboo because most people assume it is referring to the holocaust. But it is still used, often unthinkingly.
It's improbable that 'bought the farm' comes from here but it's the literary illustration of it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Much_Land_Does_a_Man_Need%3F
"buying the farm" sound more American to me. Although 'farmer' as a term already existed in the Middle Ages (yeoman farmer), one is more accustomed to 'peasant', and 'farm' sounds more USian. I guess 'farm(er)' has the connotation of 'free' while peasant implies 'tenant'. Iirc* the yeomanry was 'agriculturalists' actually owning their land but not being noble while a peasant was dependent on (of?) a landlord.
*too lazy to look it up
Is the phrase American in origin?
In German one bites the grass instead of the dust before watching the radish from below (no pushing up daisies)
"(etwas) bis zur Vergasung (tun)" (to do something up to the gassing)
It means to (have to) do something beyond the point where it gets really annoying/cumbersome/intolerable, e.g. having to work overtime constantly or a sports trainer or PE teacher forcing yet another round around the stadium (and then another, and another...)
Originating from WW1 and popular in the inter-war years. Since WW2 there is a taboo because most people assume it is referring to the holocaust. But it is still used, often unthinkingly.