THIS LAND IS MINE

This land is mine

God gave this land to me

This brave and ancient land to me
And when the morning sun
Reveals her hills and plains
Then I see a land
where children can run free.

So take my hand
And walk this land with me
And walk this lovely land with me
Tho' I am just a man

When you are by my side

With the help of God
I know I can be strong.

So take my hand
And walk this land with me

And walk this golden land with me.
Tho' I am just a man

When you are by my side

With the help of God
I know I can be strong.

To make this land our home

If I must fight

I'll fight to make this land our own.
Until I die this land is mine!

Pat Boone - Exodus (this Land Is Mine) 

BUNGHOLE OF THE WEEK: TO SOW ONE'S WILD OATS

The saying is referring to a European grass species with the formal name Avena fatua, which has for centuries in English been called wild oats. Some botanists think it’s the wild original of cultivated oats. Farmers have since ancient times hated it because it’s a weed that’s useless as a cereal crop, but its seeds have always been difficult to separate from those of useful cereals and so tended to survive and multiply from year to year. The only way to remove it was to tramp the fields and hand-weed it. Even today it’s still a problem, despite modern seed cleaning and selective weedkillers.

So sowing wild oats was the archetypal useless occupation, indeed worse than useless. It’s not surprising that the phrase sowing wild oats was applied figuratively to young men who frittered away their time in stupid or idle pastimes. But there’s a strong sexual association here, too, because the phrase was often applied, in a more or less indulgent way, and always to young men, to what was politely referred to as youthful dissipation. The associations between male sexual activity and sowing seed are obvious enough.

The saying is first recorded in English in 1542, in a tract by the Norfolk Protestant clergyman Thomas Beccon, though I’m told that a related phrase appears in the works of the Roman author Plautus. It’s common in older English literature, no doubt because the image struck a chord in a society that was still mainly agrarian. Here’s a typical example, fromLittle Women by Louisa May Alcott, of 1869: “Boys will be boys, young men must sow their wild oats, and women must not expect miracles”.

Source: http://www.worldwidewords.org/

BUNGHOLE OF THE WEEK: HEAR STH THROUGH/ON THE GRAPEVINE

The expression ‘through the grapevine’ (or sometimes ‘on the grapevine’) is commonly used to mean ‘unofficially’ rather than through an official announcement, for example ‘I heard it on the grapevine that they’re planning to make some people redundant’. Rumours and gossip are spread ‘on the grapevine’ but why ‘the grapevine’? The term originated in the USA and comes from the telegraph system invented in the 19th century by Samuel Morse. The system required thousands of kilometres of telegraph wire to be installed, held in place several meters above the ground by telegraph poles placed at regular intervals along the telegraph route. People thought the wires and poles looked like the strings used to train vines so the telegraph lines became known as ‘the grapevine’. During the American Civil War rumours were often spread via the telegraph lines. When people were asked whether a particular story was true, they would often reply ‘I heard it through the grapevine’.

Source: www.onestopenglish.com

BUNGHOLE OF THE WEEK: SPLITTING HAIRS

SPLIT HAIRS - "Argue extensively over trifles or fine distinctions; quibble. A hair can be split today without much trouble, but once it was thought to be so fine that an effort to split it would be a waste of time. The same was true of trifling points, and the analogy between the one and the other was made long ago. A translation in 1691 of Gabriel D'Emillianne's 'Observations on a Journey to Naples' offered: 'Shewing himself very inventive and dexterous at splitting a Hair in his way of handling Scholastick matter.' Gabriel D'Emillianne was the pseudonym of Antonio Gauin." From "Dictionary of Cliches" by James Rogers (Wings Books, Originally New York: Facts on File Publications, 1985).

Source: http://www.phrases.org.uk

BUNGHOLE OF THE WEEK: TOP BRASS

Many reporters just love this expression; they use it all the time. Any time the top people of an organisation are present during a press conference, the reporter says/writes that it was attended by the `top brass'. The expression is considered to be informal, and is mostly used in British English.

*The minister has said that there will be a reshuffle of the army's top brass.

The expression `top brass' was first used in the Army. `Brass' referred to the gold braid found on the hats of military officers — it indicated the individual's rank. The word `brass' is actually a shortened form of `brass hat', and this was the term used by enlisted men in the late 19th century to refer to their commanding officers. It was during World War II that `brass hat' became `top brass'. As time went by, the expression began to be used in non-military contexts; important individuals of an organisation began to be called `top brass'. The term `the brass' can also be used to refer to such people.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/edu/2006/07/10/stories/2006071000851500.htm

BUNGHOLE OF THE WEEK: KANGAROO COURT

Strangely, the term kangaroo court is not Australian in origin. The term refers to an improperly constituted and illegitimate court, especially one constituted by people who are otherwise outside the law, prisoners, mutineers, etc. What kangaroos have to do with it is not known for certain. There are plenty of guesses, but no strong evidence. 

What we do know is that the phrase arose on the American frontier, attested to as early as 1841 in reference to Natchez, Mississippi. Various suggestions have been proffered, none with any solid evidence behind them. The best is Barry Popik’s suggestion that the term may come from the Kangaroo district of Vicksburg, Mississippi, a rather notorious section of town known for its gambling dens and brothels that flourished in the 1820s and early 1830s. The name Kangaroo comes from the name of brothel in that district. Popik’s explanation fits the time and place, but to date no specific links between kangaroo court and this district have been found. Until someone finds a connection between the Vicksburg district and some account of mock or impromptu justice, Popik’s explanation must remain tentative.

Other suggestions include that such courts defy the law, just as strange creatures, like the kangaroo, seem to defy the laws of nature, or that the name comes from speed by which one jumps from the courtroom into prison. A third hypothesis that is frequently proffered is that it comes from informal prosecutions of claim jumpers during the California gold rush. The lexical evidence indicates that the phrase did not originate in Australia, so any actual connection with the land down under is incorrect.

Such courts were also known as mustang or mestang courts, in reference to a wild and uncontrollable horse. Not as exotic as a kangaroo, but a wild animal nonetheless.

The first known use of kangaroo court is from the 24 August 1841 New Orleans Daily Picayune (2):

The Concordia Intelligencer says “several loafers were lynched in Natchez last week upon various charges instituted by the Kangaroo court. The times grow warm; we can see another storm coming, not unlike that which prevailed in the days of the Murrel excitement. In Natchez, as in New Orleans, they are driving away all of the free negroes.” What is a Kangaroo court, neighbor?

Source: http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/comments/kangaroo_court/

BUNGHOLE OF THE WEEK: SMITHEREENS

'Smithereens' is an Irish word. It derives from, or is possibly the source of, the modern Irish 'smidirín', which means 'small fragments'. There is a town near Baltimore, close to the south-west coast of Ireland, calledSkibbereen. The name means 'little boat harbour' and it is tempting to imagine sailing ships arriving there from the wild Atlantic by being 'blown to Skibbereen'. The more recent 'Troubles' also bring up images of property/people being dynamited and 'blown to Skibbereen' from all over Ireland. There's no record of any such phrase however, and the similarity between 'Skibbereen' and 'smithereens' seems to be no more than co-incidence.

Another enticing notion as to the source of 'smithereens' is that it refers to the shards of metal formed when iron is forged and hammered in a smithy. Again, there's nothing but wishful thinking to support that idea. The actual origin is more prosaic. 'Smiodar' means fragments in Irish Gaelic. 'Een' is a commonplace diminutive ending, as in colleen (girl), that is, Caile (country woman) + een. Similarly, smiodar + een lead us to smithereen. As with many words that are inherited from other languages, it took some time for the English spelling to become stable. Both 'smiddereens' and 'shivereens' are recorded in the mid 19th century.

The notion of things being 'broken/smashed/blown to smithereens' dates from at least the turn of the 19th century. Francis Plowden, in The History of Ireland, 1801, records a threat made against a Mr. Pounden by a group of Orangemen:

"If you don't be off directly, by the ghost of William, our deliverer, and by the orange we wear, we will break your carriage in smithereens, and hough your cattle and burn your house."

['Hough' is a variant of 'hock' - to disable by cutting the tendons]

'Smithereens' is one of those unusual nouns that, like 'suds' and 'secateurs', never venture out by themselves - the word is always plural.

Source: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/blown-to-smithereens.html

BUNGHOLE OF THE WEEK: LOCK, STOCK, AND BARREL

This phrase, meaning 'completely' or 'thoroughly', is another phrase originally referring to firearms. In this case, it refers to the three major parts of a musket, the firing mechanism or lock, the stock which rests against the shoulder, and the barrel. The phrase was originally reversed, first appearing in an 1817 letter by Sir Walter Scott as stock, lock, and barrel:

Like the High-landman’s gun, she wants stock, lock, and barrel, to put her into repair.

The current sequence dates to 1842 in William T. Thompson’s Major Jones’s Courtship:

All moved, lock, stock, and barrel.

(Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition)
from: http://www.wordorigins.org/

BUNGHOLE OF THE WEEK: TANTALIZE (or tantalise)

TANTALIZE ([verb] torment or tease with the sight or promise of something that is unobtainable)
is named for Tantalus, the mythical king of the Phrygians, who, for his sins, was condemned to eternally suffer thirst and hunger in Hades by being made to stand in a pool of water that receded when he stooped to drink and with a branch of fruit hanging over him that rose higher when he reached for it.