aphorisms based on agriculture and nautical matters

[Ankerwycke]

‘Rain on Good Friday or Easter Day,
A good crop of grass but a bad one of hay.’

‘If the cockerel crows before he goes to bed,
He wakes in the morning with a wet head.’

 

[Whisky]

"Hell's half acre" I assume that means something!

I’m sure there are other meanings but in Texas Hell’s Half acre was a designated “red light” district in Fort Worth starting in the 1870’s. It was well known for it brothels, saloons, and killings.

Hell's Half Acre, Fort Worth

The Handbook of Texas is your number one authoritative source for Texas history. Read this entry and thousands more like it on our site.

www.tshaonline.org

 

[Whisky]

Working in the fields “from can to can’t see.”

 

[The Knize]

No spring chicken.

Collision.

A cute filly.

Gelded.

Use everything but the oink.

Horse sense. (I personally do not know what this is really referencing. I am told a horse will run right off a cliff, but a mule will not.)

Die in the yoke. (I think this one is really evocative.)

Were you born on a barn?

 

[The Knize]

Hold your horses.

To farm out.

To chicken out.

To get your goat.

To plough back.

To put one's hand to the plough.

To egg someone on.

To put someone out to pasture.

As meek as a lamb.

Chickens come home to roost.

**** and bull story.

Nest egg.

Pecking order.

Straight from the horse's mouth.

To bring home the bacon.

Two shakes of a lamb's tail.

To beef up.

A good egg.

A rotten egg.

A hard row to hoe.

 

[Owen Bawn]

My parents and particularly my uncles had some great ones drawn from poverty and farming in Ireland.
-The weather’s so changeable you wouldn’t know which clothes to pawn.
-Every man is sociable until a goat invades his garden.
-Many a ship is lost within sight of the harbour.
-Tis the quiet pig that eats the meal.
-A lamb's bleat is often more telling than a dog's bark.
-You'll never plough a field by turning it over in your mind.
-There's no need to fear an ill wind if your haystacks are all tied down.
-A turkey never voted for an early Christmas.
-God is good, but never dance in a small boat.
-Never bolt the door with a boiled carrot.
-A trout in the pot is better than a salmon in the sea.
-There's no use boiling your cabbage twice.

There are a couple my uncle used to say that I still use with coworkers in my office to this day:
-It's not a delay to stop and sharpen the scythe.
and I'll often walk into someone's office while they're working at something and I'll say "How's she cuttin'?"
Finally, when I was 12 I turned and ran from 2 bigger kids who wanted to fight with me. I felt awful afterwards- I thought that I was a chicken. My uncle said to me "Tis better to be a coward for a minute than dead for the rest of your life."

 

[Ankerwycke]

‘A Clean Slate’ (Royal Navy) - Referred to changing the watch - any changes in the course, records of occurrences, distances travelled, and so on, were chalked on a slate by the officer of the watch. When the watch changed the records were copied into the log book and the new watch started with a new slate.

‘The Bitter End’ (Royal Navy) - The bitts were wooden posts on the deck to which ropes were secured. The bitter end was the end of a length of rope that was tied around a bitt.

 

[Owen Bawn]

Just remembered another one. When I was a boy and we'd been on a long drive in the car, my father would goose the accelerator a little when we were a mile or two from home. I'd look up at him and he'd say "Aye, the horses can smell the byre now, lad."

 

[The Knize]

Great collection of one's I had never heard before, OB!

I had to look it up. The internet says a "byre" is a cowshed. But I think it really means as hay, etc. storage shed.

 

[Owen Bawn]

Great collection of one's I had never heard before, OB!

I had to look it up. The internet says a "byre" is a cowshed. But I think it really means as hay, etc. storage shed.

Exactly. An outbuilding to keep feed and animals dry. Like a barn.

 

[Ankerwycke]

’Freshly Whipped’ (Royal Navy) - New cords on the Cat O’ Nine Tails.

’Mother Carey’s Chickens (Royal Navy) - Storm Petrels.

’Mother Carey’s Plucking Her Goose’ (Royal Navy) - A Snowstorm.

 

[The Knize]

"To earmark."

I wonder if "brand" as in a brand name comes from branding cattle.

 

[Scarry Knight]

It was slicker than snot on a glass doorknob.

He skittered around like spit on a hot griddle.


Wind from the South, sets a hook in the mouth.

Wind from the West fishing is best.

Wind from the East, fishing is least.

 

[Scarry Knight]

Just remembered another one. When I was a boy and we'd been on a long drive in the car, my father would goose the accelerator a little when we were a mile or two from home. I'd look up at him and he'd say "Aye, the horses can smell the byre now, lad."

That was "to burn the cobwebs out" with dad in his Chryslers.

 

[The Knize]

Did we have already:

"loose cannon"

"from the horse's mouth"

"two shakes of a lambs tail"

"get off your high horse"

"bringing in the sheaves"

"know the ropes" or "show him the ropes"?

"**** of the walk"?

"chickenfeed"

"to lie fallow"

I wonder if "to glean" comes from farming.

 

[RSC]

Horses for courses. Not from nautical or agricultural matters, but from an era in which horses were commonplace.

 

[The Knize]

Horses for courses.

Good one. Slightly like the boxing teaching "styles make fights."

 

[RSC]

We also might say "That's a horse of a different color." Or "Time and tide wait for no man." "Strike while the iron is hot."

 

[Ankerwycke]

’First Rate’ (Royal Navy) - Ship of the Line. 100 guns or more on 3 decks.

’Second Rate’ (Royal Navy) - Ship of the Line. 90 - 98 guns on 3 decks.

’Third Rate’ (Royal Navy) - Ship of the Line. 64 - 84 guns on 2 decks.

‘Scuppered’ (Royal Navy) - Scuppers were the drains along the side of the deck that emptied through holes in the ships side, and to be scuppered was to go down the drain.

 

[Ankerwycke]

‘Bellwether’ - A castrated ram (wether) with a bell round its neck used to lead a flock of sheep, and the ringing of the bell let the shepherd know where the flock was.