structural:summarization, information:classification
In human culture

In his 1755 Dictionary of the English Language, Samuel Johnson defined oats as "A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people."

"Oats and Beans and Barley Grow" is the first line of a traditional folksong (1380 in the Roud Folk Song Index), recorded in different forms from 1870. Similar songs are recorded from France, Canada, Belgium, Sweden, and Italy.

In English, oats are associated with sexual intercourse, as in the idioms "sowing one's (wild) oats", meaning having many sexual partners in one's youth, and "getting your oats", meaning having sex regularly.