Words and Their Stories: Farm Expressions
English expressions related to agriculture. Transcript of radio broadcast:
30 January 2010
Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.
In the early days of human history, people survived by hunting wild animals, or gathering wild grains and plants for food. Then, some people learned to grow crops and raise animals for food. They were the first farmers">farmers.
Since the sixteenth century, the word farm">farm has meant agricultural land. But a much older meaning of the word farm">farm is linked to economics. The word farm">farm comes from the Latin word, firma, which means an unchanging payment.
Experts say the earliest meaning of the English word
farm
was a yearly payment made as a tax or rent.
Farmers in early England did not own their land. They paid every year to use agricultural lands.
In England, farmers used hawthorn trees along the edges of property. They called this row of hawthorns a
hedge
.
Hedging fields was how careful farmers marked and protected them.
Soon, people began to use the word
hedging
to describe steps that could be taken to protect against financial loss.
Hedging is common among gamblers who make large bets. A gambler bets a lot of money on one team. But, to be on the safe side, he also places a smaller bet on the other team, to reduce a possible loss.
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