Country Living with Francis Farragher

It just might have been a case of ‘pushing the boat just a bit too far’ when I managed to get in the phrase ‘Annus Horribilis’ into the introduction of a farming story in last week’s edition of the paper, but over three decades on from the year that the late Queen Elizabeth II uttered the phrase, its meaning is crystal clear to almost everyone.

The year was 1992 and one disaster after the next had befallen the British family that year: three of her children’s marriages had broken up while fire had raged through the stately halls of Windsor Castle, so we can see why the monarch was well entitled to describe it as ‘a horrible year’ in her best Latin.

It prompted me to dwell on those strange phrases we use so often and there originate from. Even in my first sentence of the column ‘I pushed the boat out’ which as might be expected is a nautical term. Before setting sail on long voyages, sailors would party extravagantly ‘pushing the boat out’ before embarking on their travels.

Another great terms to describe any unfortunate who has been trying to give up ‘the drink’ – unsuccessfully – is ‘falling off the wagon’ which has its origins in the late 1800s and early 1900s. At the time in the USA, what was known as the ‘prohibition crusade’ was being launched with the aim of having the entire population of the States ‘on the dry’. Needless to say a pretty hopeless cause!

At the time there were water carts or wagons on the roads or tracks with water sprinklers to keep the dust down. On hot summer days this water would be far from potable but for the really dedicated people who had quit the booze, they could boast of staying on the wagon whilst being prepared to drink the water on board rather than return to alcohol. If they did go back on the booze they would then have fallen off the wagon.

Speaking of the excesses of alcohol, another great term is ‘feeling under the weather’ often used to describe the ravages of a really vicious hangover, or more generally, if someone is feeling poorly for more normal reasons. A shorter version of that in my local is ‘tired’ which identifies someone who either has imbibed too much or is suffering the acute after-effects of the night before.