# where does the phrase . . . **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 15, 2005, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-phrase/299552 "2005-04-15T21:40:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cmangle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@cmangle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmangle)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-phrase/299552/1 "2005-04-15T21:40:02Z")
“What do you think I just fell off the turnip wagon?” . . . come from ? ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-phrase/299552/2 "2005-04-15T21:42:42Z")
Perhaps from somewhere near "do you think I came up the (river) Clyde on a bike? 🙂 Welcome to you and all your turnip friends. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cmangle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@cmangle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmangle)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-phrase/299552/3 "2005-04-15T21:46:50Z")
me and my turnip friends thank you, just was looking to see where our wagon went ? ---
**Author:** ![cmangle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@cmangle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmangle)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-phrase/299552/4 "2005-04-15T21:48:57Z")
P.S. that’s the first time I’ve heard the river rider version ! BTW, Where is the River Clyde ? ( Just in case I can’t find my bike!) ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-phrase/299552/5 "2005-04-15T21:57:30Z")
Turnips became associated with idiocy in the 18th century. The phrase obliquely refers to “turnip-headedness.” You’d call someone a turnip-head (or wurzel-skull, mangel-block, etc.) to denigrate their intelligence, because (before burlap bags became widely-available) root vegetables traditionally provided heads for scarecrows. Calling someone a turnip suggests that, like a bird-bogie’s, the only thing their head is good for is holding up a hat. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-phrase/299552/6 "2005-04-15T22:01:54Z")
Uh, by the way, I didn’t mean anything by bringing up mangels, **cmangle**. My face is beet-red. Welcome aboard! ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-phrase/299552/7 "2005-04-15T22:33:27Z")
> [@cmangle](#): > > P.S. that’s the first time I’ve heard the river rider version ! > > BTW, Where is the River Clyde ? ( Just in case I can’t find my bike!) It’s in Scotland, and flows through the city of Glasgow (and other places of course) My mothe rusexd to say it but Idon’t think I have heard it for years. I’ve never heard your turnip one, either, so it will be fun to see whether any clever person does know the origin. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-phrase/299552/8 "2005-04-15T22:35:31Z")
> [@Celyn](#): > > … > > My mothe rusexd to… ``` Well, that was a novel way of typing that "my mother used to......" and I see that **Larry Mudd** seems to have a sensible answer. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-phrase/299552/9 "2005-04-15T22:44:53Z")
I’ve heard the phrase as “I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck”. [Johnny Carson](http://www.yaelf.com/aueFAQ/miffllffturnptruck.shtml) apparantly had a hand in popularizing it, but the first person I remember hearing it from was Woody Harrelson as Woody Boyd on _Cheers_. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-phrase/299552/10 "2005-04-15T23:04:56Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > Turnips became associated with idiocy in the 18th century. The phrase obliquely refers to “turnip-headedness.” You’d call someone a turnip-head (or wurzel-skull, mangel-block, etc.) to denigrate their intelligence, because (before burlap bags became widely-available) root vegetables traditionally provided heads for scarecrows. > > Calling someone a turnip suggests that, like a bird-bogie’s, the only thing their head is good for is holding up a hat. Perhaps, but I think in this particular usage what is being suggested that someone who has fallen off the turnip truck is a hick or a rube, and a clumsy one at that - a farm hand who has come to town riding on top of a load of turnips in the back of a truck, and tumbled off into the street. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-phrase/299552/11 "2005-04-15T23:24:48Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Perhaps, but I think in this particular usage what is being suggested that someone who has fallen off the turnip truck is a hick or a rube, and a clumsy one at that - a farm hand who has come to town riding on top of a load of turnips in the back of a truck, and tumbled off into the street. I agree. And, if anyone can find a cite in print for “fall off a turnip truck/wagon” or something similar that predates 1970, I’d love to see it. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-the-phrase/299552/12 "2005-04-15T23:25:59Z")
Ah, fie on your breviloquent and transpicuous explanation, **Colibri**. It isn’t pretentiously obscure at all. Where’s the fun in _that?_ 😛