THE UNCOMMON ORIGINS OF SOME COMMON EXPRESSIONS - Beat about the Bush

In this series I will write the origins of some of the most common expressions of phrases that we use in ours day to day life. The facts given here are extracts from a book by the same name that I got long time back from Reader's Digest. I wholeheartedly thank the author 'John Kahn' for this amazing book of trivia

BEAT ABOUT THE BUSH

The roundabout approach to an awkward problem is considered by foreigners to be a British speciality. What to many Britons is simply good manners is often interpreted by others as evasiveness.

Beating about the bush was originally, in the 15th century, a way of finding game birds at night. Hunters or poachers would tap a stick on the ground or rustle the leaves with it to try to flush out the game. This was just a preliminary to the actual capture or killing of a bird, and the phrase came into to general use in the sense of a roundabout approach as opposed to a direct and forthright approach to real business in hand.