A Fresh Idea

Elsie & Elmer, once the images
used by Borden's milk

This morning I was talking in the coffee shop with Nigel about the word fresh, which he had just used in one of its contemporary senses (fashionable, cool*)--at least, I think that's what he meant. I'm not, any longer (was I ever?) all that "fashionable" or "cool." Though it was very brisk walking over to the shop this morning. And my coffee mug was frigid by the time I got there.

I was telling him that when I was younger, one of the meanings of fresh was ... well, here's what the OED says:  15.  [Perhaps influenced by German frech saucy, impudent.] Forward, impertinent, free in behaviour. orig. U.S.

The dictionary traces this one back to the mid-19th century, and I can remember it from boyhood TV, movies, and conversation. ("Don't get fresh with me!" a woman might cry.) But I've not heard anyone use the word in this sense in a long, long time.

The impudent meaning I heard, too--a teacher (one of mine) might say it to a pupil (me?) who was getting a little uppity: "Danny, aren't we being a little fresh today?" (Danny, in his mind but never audibly, would reply: "Well, maybe you are!" I never much liked that kind of we coming from adults--especially when I knew they meant you (i.e, Danny).)

Meanwhile, the OED lists some fifteen adjectival senses of the word--from, oh, the opposite of salt water to intoxicated to sober (!) to (of a cow) coming into milk.  So ... a fresh cow can deliver some fresh milk?

And would Elsie the Cow ever say to Elmer the Bull, "Don't get fresh with me"?

*definition #5 on Merriam-Webster's site--#17 on dictionary.com.