Cows And Chickens’ Idiomatic Homecoming

by Kevin Burton     American farm country has fed the world and supplied it with a number of mud-caked idioms, as we have seen with the help of Merriam-Webster.    Today we bring it all home with our third and final installment of Barnyard Idioms.    We start with an idiom touching on my job …

Flying Pigs And Uncounted Chickens

by Kevin Burton    I seem to remember on The Beverly Hillbillies, one or more of the Clampetts describing someone as “muley” to mean they were exceptionally stubborn.    Now I see that Merriam-Webster, the dictionary supplying us with idioms from farm country, defines muley as “hornless.”     Stay tuned for our second helping of …

Idioms Straight From The Horse’s Mouth

by Kevin Burton    Today I am owning my farm-country standing and taking a look at some phrases we have exported to the rest of the country.    Merriam-Webster calls them “barnyard idioms.” I don’t love that name but I must admit some of these phrases are more than a little muddy.    From Kansas …