Have you ever asked someone a simple question and received an answer that seemed to go everywhere except where you wanted it to go?

“Stop beating around the bush and get to the point!”

We use that expression all the time. But have you ever wondered what a bush has to do with avoiding a question?

The answer takes us back hundreds of years—to hunting.

During medieval times, hunting birds was a popular activity. Hunters did not always simply walk into the woods and wait for their prey to appear. Instead, they sometimes used people called beaters. Their job was to walk through bushes and undergrowth, striking the vegetation with sticks to frighten birds out of hiding. Once the birds were flushed from the bushes, other hunters could catch or shoot them.

In other words, the people doing the “beating” weren't actually catching the birds. They were doing something preliminary—making a lot of noise and activity around the bushes while someone else waited for the real action.

And that is where the expression eventually took on its figurative meaning.

One of the earliest known written references appears in a medieval poem, Generydes, dating to around 1440. It contains a line referring to some people who “bete the bussh” while others caught the birds.

By the 1500s, the expression had developed into something closer to the meaning we recognize today. In 1572, the English writer George Gascoigne wrote about someone who “bet about the bush” while others caught the birds.

Think about what was happening. The person was busy beating the bushes, but somebody else was actually catching the birds. There was plenty of activity—but it wasn't necessarily getting to the point.

Eventually, “beating about the bush” became a way of describing someone who was approaching a subject indirectly rather than dealing with it head-on.

Today, to beat around the bush means to avoid getting to the main point. A person might do it because the subject is uncomfortable, because they don't know how to say something, because they are trying not to offend someone—or simply because they don't want to give a straight answer.

For example:

“Did you break the vase?”

“Well, I was in the living room, and then I heard a noise, and I remember the dog was running around, and actually, I was going to tell you something about that dog…”

That's beating around the bush.

Just say, “Yes, I broke the vase!”

Interestingly, Americans generally say “beat around the bush,” while the older British form is “beat about the bush.” The American version became increasingly common and eventually became the form most familiar to us.

So the next time someone tells you, “Stop beating around the bush,” you can explain that you're not really being accused of attacking a shrub.

You're being accused of doing what medieval hunters' helpers once did: making plenty of noise and movement around the bush without getting directly to the bird.

And perhaps that's the perfect description of a person who talks and talks, and never quite gets to the point.

Michael Kossove lives in Kauneonga Lake, NY.