Sowing wild oats

To sow wild oats is to conduct oneself recklessly and foolishly to no good purpose. The wild oat avena fatua resembles the normal cereal oat but is in fact a pernicious weed that can infest fields and is very difficult to eradicate. The Romans knew all about them and wild oats are mentioned in the works of Plautus c. 200 BC Thus for centuries sowing wild oats has been synonymous for unproductive behaviour. In the 16th and 17th centuries, wild oats was used to describe unruly and reckless young men. Today, sowing wild oats is a phase that many young people go through and mercifully outgrow.