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Today's word/phrase

Wool-gathering:

Many years ago the wool industry was of the greatest importance in England.  Wool was not plenty and poor people used to go about collecting any scraps of wool they could find by the wayside torn by thorns and bushes from the sheep's back.  In the course of their collection, they could have no set route and so they wandered about aimlessly and appeared to be putting little thought into their work.  In due course. this woolgathering and wandering aimlessly came to be associated together.  Nowadays we use the term to denote people whose minds are not attached or fixed to the subject on hand but wander. 

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