Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: To beat about the bush

Can any of you kindly tell me where this expression comes from ?
Bye Asoka xx'82
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 Can any of you kindly tell me where this expression comes from ?
Credo solo che derivi da un'immagine "colorita" per indicare il concetto di
tergiversare, del resto in italiano non si dice "menare il can per l'aia"
per indicare la stessa cosa?
Cercare nei cespugli...far passeggiare il cane nell'aia (che e` l'aia poi?),
insomma, fare qualcosa di inutile per prender tempo.
O no?
ciao, Janis

 Can any of you kindly tell me where this expression comes from ?
I don't know where it comes from, but I just wanted to say that what
I've always heard is "beat around the bush".  Beat about the bush must
be British English.
Well, as far as the origin goes, it might have something to do with the
gubernatorial elections or the presidential elections in the US where
other candidates were trying to beat Bush.....hence...beating around
the bush.
ciao
Arianna
PS: sorry guys but this is as witty as I can get.  Do you still want me
at the raduno?
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Before you buy.

per indicare la stessa cosa?
L'aia è il pollaio. Menare il can per l'aia credo significhi
To set the cat among the pi(d)geons
Ossia andare a cercarsi dei guai. Seminare zizzania.
Saluti,
Peltio

 Can any of you kindly tell me where this expression comes from ?
Origin of:
Beat about the bush
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From hunting, where huntsmen gingerly beat around bushes
that might contain a dangerous quarry.
Così disse
http://www.shu.ac.uk/web-admin/phrases/list.html
Equivalente italiano:
Menare il can per l'aia
"L'espressione si può spiegare con un antico proverbio:
«L'aia,  non è luogo per cani da caccia», dunque portare il
cane nell'aia è cosa inutile" (P. Sorge, I modi di dire della
lingua italiana).
Ma la saggezza popolare dice anche che:
chi segue il prudente, mai se ne pente.
Per Janis:
aia [à-ia] sostantivo f.
Terreno battuto o lastricato davanti e intorno alla casa colonica
• nel detto menare il can per l’aia, fare cose inconcludenti,
che fanno perdere tempo senza costrutto, tergiversare
(DISC)
Ciao,
Dario.
ITA

Ossia andare a cercarsi dei guai. Seminare zizzania.
Non ci siamo neanche qui... menare il can per l'aia significa
tergiversare, cercare scuse, non venire al punto. Perche' si dica
cosi' non lo so, posso solo ipotizzare che si mandi il cane a fare un
giro in cortile per distrarlo, come si fa con un interlocutore col
quale non si vuole affrontare il nocciolo della questione. E to beat
about the bush in inglese vuol dire la stessa cosa, tipo 'stop beating
about the bush and tell me what I need to know!'.
-- 
Isa
Work like you don't need money,
Love like you've never been hurt,
And dance like no one's watching

I can't explain this in Italian. But it is worth telling.  I have a
suspicion that this comes from the dry western states.  Dangerous
animals hide in the brush and bush.  Rather than attaking them head on
one "beats around the bush."  In the Arizona desert one can see traces
of the snakes.  They leave slithering tracks in the sand.  All around is
bush and sand.  When one has to relieve one's self one doesn't just go
up to a bush and evacuate.  It os a fearful thing to sit next to a bush
in the desert with the rear end bare and not know what is in the bush,
so one beats around the bush to see whether one will be bitten. 
Martino	
After too many grigi di veneto.

No davvero. L'aia e' il cortile della fattoria
Sai cos'è? Troppa pubblicità.
Associo AIA ai polli.
Da sempre.
E non ho mai pensato che potesse avere un significato differente.
Perchè nessuno me lo ha fatto notare prima?
Grazie per la correzione.
saluti,
YHS Peltio

 Can any of you kindly tell me where this expression comes from ?
Dear Asoka,
In William and Mary Morris' highly informative and entertaining Dictionary
of Word and Phrase Origins,
the following entry is to be found relating to the expression you are asking
about :
' The real meaning of beat around the bush is not so much to evade an issue
entirely, but to approach it cautiously  and indirectly. The expression
dates back many centuries and comes from the language of the huntsman.  It
was once the custom to hire beaters to beat bushes and arouse game birds for
the hunter to shoot at. So the beater stirred up the action , but the hunter
got to the point. '
Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, Second Edition, Harper and
Row, 1988
I trust this of help and I remain, as always,
Bambi
dtb

Perchč nessuno me lo ha fatto notare prima?
Forse perche' polli e/o cortili delle case coloniche non sono un
argomento di conversazione popolarissimo? :-)
Lurve,
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I think you will find it is English idiom and not American ;-)
'Beating about the bush' has more to do with English hunting and
gentrified life than snakes in the desert:-)
.
Hunting quail and pheasants required beating around bushes and scrub to
make them break cover. I suspect that it took several bushes and swipes
for the beaters to find and get the birds to break cover and thence to
be shot by the waiting 'sportsmen'. 
 It means to take a long time to get to the point of a discussion. 
Such as someone who rang me on international tolls and took 20 minutes
to get around (only when I was about to hang up) to inform me of the
death of a friend. As my book of idioms states -"to avoid a direct
statement of what must be said; to convey one's meaning in a roundabout
fashion."
ciao for niao
Loki
 
-- 

at the raduno?
Yes, we do...
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...
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Many thanks to all of you (I even got the British and American versions !
:-))
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