[ti:Farm Expressions]
[ar:Shirley Griffith]
[al:WORDS AND THEIR STORIES]
[by:www.voa.com]
[00:00.00]Now, the VOA 
[00:12.55]Special English program 
[00:14.49]WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.
[00:17.18]In the early days 
[00:19.34]of human history, 
[00:20.83]people survived 
[00:22.22]by hunting wild animals, 
[00:24.37]or gathering wild grains 
[00:26.96]and plants for food. 
[00:29.35]Then, some people learned 
[00:32.28]to grow crops 
[00:33.90]and raise animals for food. 
[00:36.58]They were the first farmers.
[00:39.63]Since the sixteenth century, 
[00:42.92]the word farm has meant 
[00:45.81]agricultural land. 
[00:47.81]But a much older meaning 
[00:50.36]of the word farm is 
[00:52.60]linked to economics. 
[00:54.29]The word farm comes 
[00:57.08]from the Latin word, 
[00:58.89]firma, which means 
[01:00.79]an unchanging payment.
[01:03.18]Experts say 
[01:05.42]the earliest meaning 
[01:07.11]of the English word farm 
[01:09.15]was a yearly payment 
[01:11.92]made as a tax or rent.
[01:15.45]Farmers in early England 
[01:18.50]did not own their land. 
[01:20.70]They paid every year 
[01:23.04]to use agricultural lands.
[01:25.82]In England, farmers 
[01:28.71]used hawthorn trees 
[01:30.77]along the edges of property. 
[01:33.62]They called this row 
[01:35.56]of hawthorns a hedge.
[01:38.59]Hedging fields was 
[01:41.68]how careful farmers marked 
[01:44.32]and protected them.
[01:45.66]Soon, people began to 
[01:48.67]use the word hedging 
[01:50.81]to describe steps that 
[01:53.64]could be taken to protect 
[01:55.68]against financial loss.
[01:57.92]Hedging is common 
[02:00.46]among gamblers 
[02:01.90]who make large bets. 
[02:03.99]A gambler bets a lot 
[02:07.13]of money on one team. 
[02:08.87]But, to be on the safe side, 
[02:12.10]he also places a smaller bet 
[02:15.44]on the other team,
[02:17.38] to reduce a possible loss.
[02:20.22]You might say that someone 
[02:22.95]is hedging his bet 
[02:24.50]when he invests 
[02:26.29]in several different 
[02:28.23]kinds of businesses. 
[02:29.47]One business may fail, 
[02:32.26]but likely not all.
[02:34.60]Farmers know that it is 
[02:38.44]necessary to make hay 
[02:40.83]while the sun shines.
[02:42.92]Hay has to be cut 
[02:45.46]and gathered when it is dry. 
[02:47.90]So a wise farmer never 
[02:51.49]postpones gathering his hay 
[02:53.99]when the sun is shining. 
[02:56.33]Rain may soon appear.
[02:59.36]A wise person 
[03:01.10]copies the farmer. 
[03:03.05]He works when 
[03:04.95]onditions are right.
[03:06.35]A new mother, for example, 
[03:10.04]quickly learns to try to sleep 
[03:13.05]when her baby is quiet, 
[03:15.44]even in the middle of the day. 
[03:18.32]If the mother delays, 
[03:20.66]she may lose her chance to sleep. 
[03:23.40]So, the mother learns 
[03:26.19]to make hay while the sun shines.
[03:29.44]Beans are a popular farm crop. 
[03:34.12]But beans are used to 
[03:36.96]describe something of 
[03:38.85]very little value 
[03:40.19]in the expression, 
[03:41.93]not worth a hill of beans. 
[03:44.87]The expression is often used today.
[03:48.40]You could say,for example, 
[03:51.09]that a bad idea is not 
[03:54.52]worth a hill of beans.
[03:56.66]Language expert 
[03:59.20]Charles Earle Funk said 
[04:01.99]the expression was first used 
[04:04.09]almost seven hundred years ago. 
[04:07.52]He said Robert of Gloucester 
[04:10.51]described a message 
[04:12.60]from the King of Germany 
[04:14.62]to King John of England 
[04:17.51]as altogether not worth a bean.
[04:21.80](MUSIC)
[04:32.08]This VOA Special English program, 
[04:38.00]WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, 
[04:40.29]was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. 
[04:43.49]Maurice Joyce was the narrator. 
[04:46.48]I'm Shirley Griffith.