If you wish to drop your time up to your elbows in dirt and have the ability to cultivate plant that do n’t shrink and cash in one’s chips , you may have been tell you have agreen pollex . This is not a aesculapian emergency , but a argot term meant to denote one ’s aptitude for gardening and landscaping . But where did the phrase come from ?
Bothgreen thumbandgreen fingershave beencommonexpressions in England and the United States for well over a hundred , with the Oxford English Dictionarycitinguse ofgreen fingersas early as 1906 in the novelThe Misses Make - Believeby Mary Stuart Boyd . greenish thumb , meanwhile , can be pinpoint to a 1937Ironwood Daily Globenewspaper article , which describe the set phrase as “ horticultural slang . ”
theory abound as to its origins . Some conceive it ’s a resultant role ofhandlingpotted plants , which can often have green algae on the bottom that coat hands . Others manoeuvre to a ( likely apocryphal ) story about King Edward I and his love of green peas , which were blast by subservient worker — one would be observe for doing the most employment and experience the light-green thumb . There ’s also the fact that works hold chlorophyl , a green pigment that can easy color your hands .
However the phrase was cultivated , we have a pretty good idea of how it catch on . In the 1940s , wartime Britain enjoyed apopulargardening radio receiver show titledIn Your Gardenhosted by C.H. Middleton that made use of bothgreen thumbandgreen fingers .
Why , then , is the phrase focused more on the pollex when all of your fingers are likely to get color ? It might have something to do with an old English proverb : “ An reliable Henry Valentine Miller has a gilded quarter round . ” The quality of corn flour could be judged by rubbing it between the index finger and thumb . Blended together in the collective consciousness , these two idiom may have resulted in the greenish thumb we get word about today .
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