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"for the birds"

Posted by R. Berg on June 14, 2006

In Reply to: "for the birds" posted by antiquary on June 13, 2006

: : Can someone tell me where the expression "for the birds" as when we say "this weather is fo the birds" came from?

: J D Salinger employed the phrase 'strictly for the birds' in Catcher In The Rye , and that seems to be the earliest known usage. In 1957 a writer in the journal American Speech wrote, 'The metaphor alludes to birds eating droppings from horses and cattle'. Nice.

Eric Partridge (Dictionary of Catch Phrases: American and British, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day) says it's been current in the U.S. since the late 1940s. Same derivation: a roundabout way of saying "That's a lot of horse****." Most likely, birds eat grain seeds in droppings, not actual droppings. ~rb

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