| 词汇 | bought the farm |
| 词源 | bought the farm. As late as the Vietnam War, soldiers killed in action were said to have bought the farm. The expression was inspired by the draftees’s dream to go home—in many cases to a peaceful farm, or perhaps to buy a farm—in any case, to settle down somewhere far away from the army and war. “Well, he fi- nally did buy the farm,” a friend could say on hearing of the death of such a man, and the expression was used so often that bought the farm became an ironic synonym for death. The phrase dates to World War II or earlier. Here’s another guess at its origin: When a farmer takes a bank mortgage there is a life insurance claim that is built into the payment, so that when the farmer dies the farm becomes the property of his estate; hence, he has finally bought the farm. |
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