Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom Ag Etymology Many of the words and phrases we use in our language every day have their source in agriculture. Because most Americans are at least two or three generations removed from farm life, these words and phrases have no meaning to us, apart from the way we have come to understand them. The word, "ram," for example, has come to mean crush or impact another object, although it has its origins in a common behavior of a male sheep, a ram. When threatened or provoked, a mature male sheep will lower its heads and charge into an opponent or predator. Apple of My Eye Way back when, people believed that the eye's pupil was a solid object and referred to it as an apple. Eventually the phrase "apple of his eye" took the figurative meaning we know today: Someone who is the apple of your eye is as precious as the ability to see. Sowing Your Wild Oats Avena fatua, a species of gras sin the oat genus, has been referred to as "wild oats" by the English for centuries. Though it's thought to be the precursor of cultivated oats, farmers have long hated it because it is useless as a cereal crop and hard to separate from cultivated oats and remove from fields. Literally sowing wild oats, then is a useles endeavor, and the phrase is figuratively applied to people engaging in idle pastimes. Goats / Horses / Poultry and Eggs /Sheep / Swine OAITC Lessons with Language Arts Activities Ag in Poetry Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom is a program of the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and the Oklahoma State Department of Education.