(no subject)

[deckardcanine]

From IMDb:

Suddenly Paramount, a whipping boy among the major studios as it perennially came in last or near last when yearly earnings were disclosed, is now whipping everybody in sight.

I checked the meaning of "whipping boy." As I thought, it originally meant a boy who took the punishment when a prince acted up, and the conventional figurative sense is simply a scapegoat. The above usage just suggests someone who loses competitions by a wide margin.

Has this usage -- too new for my most immediate sources -- become common? Or can I safely call it an error on the journalist's part?

Comments

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

An error, in my view. The writer used "whipping boy" in place of "someone looked down upon", probably so he or she could put the snappy phrase at the end of the sentence.

[sleepyjohn00.livejournal.com]

The usage is a few hundred years old. It's not used well in this context.

Whip it

[akktri.livejournal.com]

That's an error in society as a whole. The meanings of many expressions get lost and corrupted over time, such as popular nursery rhymes and quotes from Shakespeare. These mistranslations become enshrined in the consciousness of the ignorant masses and the quotes continue in a downward spiral into meaninglessness. There are giant books in the library that describe the various expressions people use day-to-day, and where they came from, and a lot doesn't make sense. For example, the word "nunnery" used to mean "whore house." In a play by Shakespeare, a character tells someone "get thee to a nunnery!" The expression gets chuckles nowdays because audiences don't get the cold implication. Or how about this one? "Up and down the market street, in and out the Eagle, that's the way the money goes, pop goes the weasel." The Eagle was a popular English club. A weasel is a hatmaking tool. Notice there is no monkey or mulberry bush. It looks like the phrase "whipping boy" has also been prey to translation errors.