One origin appeared in an issue of American Speech in 1955. Jet pilots say that when a jet crashes on a farm the farmer sues the government for damages done to his farm by the crash, and the amount demanded is always more than enough to pay off the mortgage and then buy the farm outright. Since this type of crash is nearly always fatal to the pilot, the pilot pays for the farm with his life.
Another origin was told by a World Wide Words Subscriber. It dates back at least World War II. Each member of the US armed services was issued a life insurance policy in the amount of $10,000. Many of the young men named their parents as beneficiaries. The parents were often living on a farm that was mortgaged. If their son was killed, the $10,000 would be used to pay the farm off.
The specific phrase " to buy the farm" turns out to be recorded in the 1950's. From the evidence that Jonathan Lighter has compiled in the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, it comes from the US Air Force where it was a slang for a fatal crash.
2 comments:
This makes sence and I had alwasy woundered about how this came about as a saying.
That is a great blog and very informal i was always curious about that term.
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