Gunnison Valley News | 1925-01-15 | Page 2 | Sowing One's "Wild Oats" Old English Expression

Sowing One's "Wild Oats" Old English Expression To "sow wild oats" means to commit com-mit youthful excesses or to spend one's time in dissipation. It usually Implies subsequent reform. The expression originated, so far as known, among the country folks of England. Wild oats a tall grass resembling the cultivated culti-vated oat and probably its original progenitor is a common weed in grain fields. It is natural that a weed so common and obnoxious should become the subject of a comparison among the country people. The expression dates back as far at least as the Sixteenth century. At first it merely meant sowing sow-ing worthless seed or seed which : would produce a worthless crop. The moral meaning was a natural transition transi-tion from the literal significance. He who wastes the precious days of his youthful prime In dissipation is sowing seeds which will grow up into obnoxious ob-noxious weeds. Pathfinder Magazine.