Community Chat

[QVCkitty1]

I was looking at old pictures today, and when I saw my grandma it made me think of  something she often said, especially when referring to my

aunt. " She's independent as a hog on ice."  I've looked it up and it makes no sense to me, but I wondered if any older members of your family ever said this ?  Maybe it's regional, she was raised in the country outside Ithaca NY. 

[luvmybeetle]

To me it sounds like she is not as independent as she thinks because you can't be if you are sliding on slippery ice.  You would be sliding all over the place and can't stand still to be independently strong.  So therefore the person is fooling herself.

[Sheila P-Burg]

Described from Google ....... Denoting independence, awkwardness, or insecurity. Origin of phrase unknown.

[QVCkitty1]

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@luvmybeetle wrote:

To me it sounds like she is not as independent as she thinks because you can't be if you are sliding on slippery ice.  You would be sliding all over the place and can't stand still to be independently strong.  So therefore the person is fooling herself.

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@luvmybeetle , That sounds like something Grandma might say.

[on the bay]

@QVCkitty1 -

I've never heard that but I have heard,

"she, he, takes to (fill in the blank!)_______ as a hog takes to waller

[panda1234]

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@QVCkitty1 wrote:

I was looking at old pictures today, and when I saw my grandma it made me think of  something she often said, especially when referring to my

aunt. " She's independent as a hog on ice."  I've looked it up and it makes no sense to me, but I wondered if any older members of your family ever said this ?  Maybe it's regional, she was raised in the country outside Ithaca NY. 

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@QVCkitty1   I am from Ithaca and never heard that said.What town outside Ithaca did she live in?

[cotton4me]

I grew up in a family with a lot strange sayings (Pennsylvania Dutch); however, I never heard this one. 

I found a blog written by a woman whose father used the phrase.  He was from Iowa.  She set out to find the meaning and here's some of what she wrote.  

"Strangely enough, I’m not the only one who has been confused by this saying. This phrase has been baffling people for decades. Yes, decades! Etymologists started searching for an explanation from the time it first appeared in the mid 19th century. In 1948 Charles Earle Funk titled his first book of word origins “A Hog on Ice”. His foreword contains a seven (7!) page narrative of his inconclusive quest for the roots of this phrase.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines the phrase as “denoting independence, awkwardness, or insecurity.” That about sums it up for a hog that’s slip-n-sliding across the ice, much like Thumper and Bambi in the Disney animated feature. “You’re doing it your way, and making a mess of it,” was what my father meant by his independent-as-a-hog-on-ice speech.

Time magazine usage in 1948, “They like to think of themselves as independents … independent as a hog on ice.”

[QVCkitty1]

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@panda1234 wrote:

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@QVCkitty1 wrote:

I was looking at old pictures today, and when I saw my grandma it made me think of  something she often said, especially when referring to my

aunt. " She's independent as a hog on ice."  I've looked it up and it makes no sense to me, but I wondered if any older members of your family ever said this ?  Maybe it's regional, she was raised in the country outside Ithaca NY. 

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@QVCkitty1   I am from Ithaca and never heard that said.What town outside Ithaca did she live in?

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@panda1234  I think , Newfield, but I'm not positive .

[panda1234]

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@QVCkitty1 wrote:

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@panda1234 wrote:

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@QVCkitty1 wrote:

I was looking at old pictures today, and when I saw my grandma it made me think of  something she often said, especially when referring to my

aunt. " She's independent as a hog on ice."  I've looked it up and it makes no sense to me, but I wondered if any older members of your family ever said this ?  Maybe it's regional, she was raised in the country outside Ithaca NY. 

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@QVCkitty1   I am from Ithaca and never heard that said.What town outside Ithaca did she live in?

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@panda1234  I think , Newfield, but I'm not positive .

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@QVCkitty1.  I know Newfield, had cousins that lived there. There is nothing there, very isolated.