Spår av klövar i språket

Milking Time, July 1, 1946

Matt Clark

Det finns många intressanta radioprogram, och man kan lära sig mycket — om man inte som jag börjar fundera på hur den som talar uttrycker sig. Då vandrar tankarna sin egen väg och jag missar vad som sägs. Häromdagen hörde jag en kvinna använda det engelska uttrycket "tills korna kommer hem". Det var första gången jag hörde det på svenska, och genast började jag grunna över hur bra det egentligen är att direktöversätta den sortens uttryck. Är det bra eller onödigt?

For a long but indefinite time.

Origin

Cows are notoriously languid creatures and make their way home at their own unhurried pace. That's certainly the imagery behind 'till the cows come home' or 'until the cows come home', but the precise time and place of the coining of this colloquial phrase isn't known. It was certainly before 1829 though, and may well have been in Scotland. The phrase appeared in print in The Times in January that year, when the paper reported a suggestion of what the Duke of Wellington should do if he wanted to maintain a place as a minister in Peel's cabinet:

If the Duke will but do what he unquestionably can do, and propose a Catholic Bill with securities, he may be Minister, as they say in Scotland "until the cows come home."

Groucho Marx was never one to pass up an opportunity for a play on words and this occurs in his dialogue of the 1933 film Duck Soup:

"I could dance with you till the cows come home. Better still, I'll dance with the cows and you come home."