Earlier this evening, my husband and I did a drive by of a horse property that sold recently. Our realtor had asked us to swing by and see if we would be happy with a similar property.

As it turned out, there was a woman power washing the arena and that was about all we could see of the property from the road. We didn't want to be intrusive, so we kept driving.

Not far up the road, we saw a herd of Golden Limousin cows and their calves. Those cattle were so darn pretty that I actually turned the car around and went back for a second look. It's not often that I see cattle as sleek and well cared for as mine, and I always admire a fine specimen of any breed.

Standing on the side of the road, I got to thinking about the phrase "till the cows come home." Where did it come frome? What does it mean? How long have people been using it?

So, I snapped a photo of the cattle as they moseyed across a pasture aglow with evening light. Tonight, I did a little research and here's what I found about the phrase "till the cows come home" courtesy of The Phrase Finder, a wonderful UK web site:

Till the cows come home

Meaning

For a long but indefinite time.

Origin

Cows are notoriously languid creatures and make their way home at their own unhurried pace. That's certainly the imagery behind 'till the cows come home' or 'until the cows come home', but the precise time and place of the coining of this colloquial phrase isn't known. It was certainly before 1829 though, and may well have been in Scotland. The phrase appeared in print in The Times in January that year, when the paper reported a suggestion of what the Duke of Wellington should do if he wanted to maintain a place as a minister in Peel's cabinet:

If the Duke will but do what he unquestionably can do, and propose a Catholic Bill with securities, he may be Minister, as they say in Scotland "until the cows come home."

Groucho Marx was never one to pass up an opportunity for a play on words and this occurs in his dialogue of the 1933 film Duck Soup:

"I could dance with you till the cows come home. Better still, I'll dance with the cows and you come home."