Re: Sticks in your craw
Posted by ESC on November 07, 2001 In Reply to: Stuck in my craw posted by
muddster on November 06, 2001
: I know what a craw is and I know what the meaning of this phrase
is...but where did it come from??
STICK IN ONE'S CRAW - "When you can't swallow something, when it
won't go down, or you are loath to accept it, it sticks in your
craw. The craw is the crop or preliminary stomach of a fowl, where
food is predigested. Hunters centuries ago noticed that some birds
swallowed bits of stone that were too large to pass through the
craw and into the digestive tract. These stones, unlike the sand
and pebbles needed by birds to help grind food in the pouch, literally
stuck in the craw, couldn't go down any farther. This oddity became
part of the language of hunters and the phrase was soon used figuratively."
From the "Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" by Robert Hendrickson
(Facts on File, New York, 1997).
- Re: Craw--age unknown R. Berg
11/07/01 (
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