You may or may not have noticed how much of the English language is enlivened with active verbs and expressions that derive from nature, animals and hunting.

You wing it. You may act crazy as a loon or ham it up. Perhaps you pass the buck. The references are everywhere.

Let's take a look at some of the more interesting origins.

A murder of crows: Poor crows, so maligned through history. A group of crows is indeed called a "murder." It's based on a persistent but ridiculous folk tale that crows form trials and sit around a circle with the defendant in the middle. If the verdict is guilty, the crows will murder the victim. One kernel of truth may be that crows supposedly sometimes kill a member of a stray flock.

Pass the buck: An early poker term originating in the United States. A knife with a buckhorn handle, shortened to "buck," or another object of value, similarly called a buck, was put in the pot by the dealer as an ante. The "buck" was then passed on to another player when it was his turn to create a jackpot.

Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite: Bed bugs used to be a common problem in American homes. Recently, the bloodsuckers again have become a health issue in the U.S. The "sleep tight" phrase refers to the days when beds were made of rope and had to be pulled tight or there would be an uncomfortable sag.

Loaded for bear: In pioneering days when muzzleloaders were the firearms of choice, hunters would load appropriate amounts of gunpowder into the breach, depending on the size of quarry. Bears obviously took full loads.

Dead duck: From an old American hunting-related proverb, "Never waste your powder on a dead duck."nectar and the length of time for the dance supposedly suggesting the distance.

Make a bee line for: When a forager bee finds a source of nectar, it hightails it to the hive and communicates the source with a "waggle dance." Amazingly, the bee points in the direction of the nectar and the length of time for the dance supposedly suggesting the distance. The rest of the hive can then make a direct, or "bee line," straight to the nectar.

In the catbird seat: This one is American in origin. The catbird mimics other birds, as well as a cat's meow, often from a high perch in a tree. Red Barber, the late Brooklyn Dodgers play-by-play radio announcer, used "sitting in the catbird seat" when a hitter was in the favorable position of having three balls and no strikes.

How now brown cow: Apparently an old teaching tool to get pupils to make rounded vowel sounds. American in origin.

High on the hog: The best cuts on a pig are high on its body. Thus the wealthy ate "high on the hog." An alternative possibility, also American, refers to the belief that piglets that suckled from the top row of teats were healthier.

Go off half-cocked: Flintlock firearms are cocked in various positions. At half-cocked, the gun should not discharge.

Get your goat: This American term of being made annoyed or angry may have originated with the old practice of placing goats with racehorses to keep them calm before a race. Bettors who didn't want to see a particular horse run well were prone to removing the goat.

Badger: the term for pestering honors the badger's fierceness, despite its relatively small size. In a cruel diversion, badgers used to be placed in an artificial burrow and dogs were unleashed in turn to see which could draw it out.

Bark up the wrong tree: First found in print in a book about Daniel Boone, it refers to hunting raccoons with dogs. The dogs would tree a raccoon but since it was at night, often barked at the wrong tree containing the coon.

Dog days: Refers to the hottest part of summer. It originated in Latin and comes from the rising of Sirius, the brightest star in the constellation called Greater Dog and was thus called Dog-star. The star rose at the same time as the sun and thus was believed to add to the sun's heat.

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth: Dates back to 4th or 5th century England. A horse's teeth reveals its age. If you get a free gift, such as a horse, it would be bad manners to peer into its mouth to check its condition.

Crazy as a loon: Some felt the bird's haunting cry suggested the demented cries of the mentally unstable. The loon's mating dance is a weird display with both members rising out of the water and frothing it with their webbed feet. In Shakespearean times, "loon" was a shortened form of "lunatic."

Wild goose chase: Its earliest usage harkens not to hunting but horse racing. Horses would chase, but never catch, a lead horse given a head start. The positions of the horses resembled wild geese flying in formation.

Swan song: Although disproved as early as Roman days, poets and literature refused to let die the legend that swans were mute until just before they die, when they sing beautifully and mournfully.

There is more than one way to skin a cat: A morbid reference in 19th century England to an apparent practice of killing cats by various methods. Just one was choking it with pudding.

Stool pigeon: Probably a hunting term in reference to the old practice of fixing a dead bird or replica pigeon to a stump, or "stool," to entice into gunning range other birds.

Red herring; Another hunting term. Oily and smelly herring fish were used to lay down trails to train hunting dogs how to follow scent.

Feeding frenzy: A fairly recent phrase derived from the habits of sharks when they get into a school of prey to attack everything in sight, including each other.

Dead as a dodo: The dodo was a flightless bird native to Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa. It had no reason to fly until the introduction of domestic animals by settlers. Thus it was doomed. The last one died in 1690.

Crocodile tears: The old story was that a crocodile lured victims near it by making a sobbing sound, then ate them while weeping. There is some evidence that the crocodile has glands near its eyes that secrete saliva or excess salt.

Come hell or high water: A reference to old American cattle drives where cattlemen were said to move their charges "through high water at every river and continuous hell between."wrong tree containing the coon.

The sources for the above are many, but this website was particularly helpful in discovering the origins of expressions and sayings: http://users.tinyonline.co....

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