2006-08-20 08:40:44 · 13 answers · asked by ddead_alive 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Mythology & Folklore
This site has an excellent hunting reference that makes the most sense I've seen today:
http://www.brownielocks.com/wordorigins.html
2006-08-20 10:51:58 · answer #1 · answered by Nosy Parker 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This saying is several hundred years old and comes from hunting. The beaters beat for the hunters, often around bushes; however they never catch the prey, it's always the hunters, who go directly to the quarry.
So they never went directly to the prey, just as someone who "beats around the bush" never gets to the point.
Avi
2006-08-20 15:54:00 · answer #2 · answered by Avi 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Game went in the bush, you beat around the bush rather than go in after it.
2006-08-20 15:46:36 · answer #3 · answered by mad_mav70 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Since it doesn't come from the vicinity of Carwford, TX, then it could be twisted so as to look as "beat directly in the bush."
2006-08-20 15:47:47 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
From a girl that won't let you put it in !
Actually you beat around the bush to see if it has any snakes or animals in it....
2006-08-20 15:46:04 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have heard it came from a beggarman. When he needed food, he came up with an excuse to ask for directions when really it was money or someone to take pity and invite him in. When he was refused he had to sleep under a bush .
2006-08-20 17:02:40 · answer #6 · answered by Claddagh 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i do not know either but it certainly has some innuendo attached to it that probably wasn't true at it's inception...that means whoever coined the phrase was not thinking about what it could mean later on...anyway, not to beat around the bush but that is my answer..
2006-08-20 15:47:14 · answer #7 · answered by aldamixxmasta 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hunting, if you didn't know where game was, you and your buds would walk about banging the bushes with sticks to scare up something to eat.
2006-08-20 15:45:35 · answer #8 · answered by Rockvillerich 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Game birds were scared out of their hiding places under bushes and then killed.
2006-08-20 15:46:16 · answer #9 · answered by PurpleFool 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
By someone who didn't know what a clit was.
2006-08-20 15:46:01 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋