Who taught: Brian

Today, let me start with asking you a question! What do you think if I say “He bought the farm.” to you? Don’t you think you would interpret literally? You know… basically just buy a farm from someone? When Brian told me this today over lunch, I had no clue about the real meaning. The only thing I figured out was it does not have just literal meaning of buying a farm since it has “THE” farm. Brian told me that it originates from World War I and a very American expression. (So, I guess U.K. or Canadian people would not understand what this expression means, right??) When a man died in the war, the U.S. government payed the mortgage of THE farm he owned off. I found the following definition from the Urban Dictionary.

To die, espescially in combat; most likely from the idea that a dead soldier’s death benifit would serve to pay off his family’s morgtage. Often shortened to “bought it.”

I guess the Urban dictionary is useful. (Thanks! Andrew.) The other thing I was surprised is that the shortened expression, “bought it.” Damn! I would never figure the meaning out if anyone says it even with some good context. So hard to figure out! I guess it would be also hard to figure out the real meaning if anyone says “bought the farm!” too. One more thing I would like to let you know is that you can use an object as its subject. For example, supposed that a server (I am referring to a type of computer here. You know, I am an applications engineer. 🙂 ) get burned physically and not available any more, you can say that, “The server bought the farm!” or “The server bought it!” Man! Still so hard to get the meaning of it! I would be so happy if I would be able to use it in any context in a real conversation. Looking forward to the first time I can use this expression!

One question though! Is is OK if I use this expression when I inform people of someone’s death? You know like, “My friend, Juno, bought the farm yesterday.”

Time for today’s injury in English taught by Andrew~

Expression: Tennis elbow! Even though Andrew told me this, the teacher is Beth because she is the one who told Andrew this one to let me know.

Definition : an inflammation, soreness, or pain on the outside (lateral) side of the upper arm near the elbow. There may be a partial tear of the tendon fibers, which connect muscle to bone, at or near their point of origin on the outside of the elbow. (Source: google health)

I do not think we have any equivalent in Korean. But one thing I kind of felt is that many of the injuries in English have a specific or representative sports’ name in it, like runner’s knee and this one. Well, personally I think that is a pretty smart way of making a new expression.