Where did the saying "As the snow flies" come from? Does anyone know? Because I hear it often and then I tried looking it up and all I found was an Elvis Presley song called "The Ghetto".

I looked and I couldn't find the origin of it either.

Never heard the expression before.

I've heard 'as the snow falls', but never heard the expression 'as the snow flies'.

I don't think we use snow references much here in California though, with one exception........people would always warn me, 'don't eat the yellow snow!' ahead of a ski trip. Zappa fans.

It could be as the snow fly's meaning all the time. I've seen snow fleas before and called them snow flies.

I used to hear it all the time out in the PNW and it was generally taken to reference blowing snow which tends to drift where it wants. Phrase was mostly used to represent events out of anyone's control, like a blizzard blowing snow all over, some things just have to play out. At least that's how I remember it being used. If I had to guess I'd say it was a regional variation combining "let the snow fall where it may" (aka chips, flakes, shit, etc) and "as the crow flies" which generally represents a direct straight distance to something as opposed to a winding road. Linguistics is funny. I got a few books at home on American colloquial slang, if I remember later I will look it up.

There is also this link below. It also deals with snow.

http://www.snowmobilehistory.com/

(10-24-2017, 11:09 AM)Donovan Wrote: I used to hear it all the time out in the PNW and it was generally taken to reference blowing snow which tends to drift where it wants. Phrase was mostly used to represent events out of anyone's control, like a blizzard blowing snow all over, some things just have to play out. At least that's how I remember it being used. If I had to guess I'd say it was a regional variation combining "let the snow fall where it may" (aka chips, flakes, shit, etc) and "as the crow flies" which generally represents a direct straight distance to something as opposed to a winding road. Linguistics is funny. I got a few books at home on American colloquial slang, if I remember later I will look it up.

This was my assumption, although without hearing it in context it's difficult to analyze

(10-24-2017, 09:24 AM)Blindgreed1 Wrote: Never heard the expression before.

Me neither.

Maybe LC is thinking of the expression "As the crow flies."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_the_crow_flies.

Edit: Oops Didn't see/read BG's last post. Never mind.