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{{short description|Idiom about futile effort}}
In American English ''''Beating a dead horse'''' is an ] which is most often used as a retort used to make clear that a particular request or line of conversation is already foreclosed, mooted or otherwise resolved.
{{other uses}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}}
]. The idiom "to beat a dead horse" originated from the fact that flogging a dead horse will not compel it to do useful work.]]


'''Flogging a dead horse''' (or '''beating a dead horse''' in ]) is an ] meaning that a particular effort is futile.
The linguistic roots of this phrase draw on an allusion to literally "whipping" or "beating" a deceased horse in order to make it get up and go. Such efforts of course, would be utterly fruitless as dead horses do not move under their own power any more.


==Early usage==
Likewise, when one is "beating a dead horse", one is flailing at a dead or useless idea.
The expression is said to have been popularized by the English politician and orator ]. Speaking in the ] in March 1859 on Bright's efforts to promote ], ] remarked that Bright had not been "satisfied with the results of his winter campaign" and that "a saying was attributed to him that he found he was 'flogging a dead horse'."<ref name="parl1859" />


The earliest instance cited in the '']'' dates from 1872, when '']'' newspaper, reporting the ], ]'s, futile efforts to defend the Ecclesiastical Courts and Registries Bill in the Commons, observed that he "might be said to have rehearsed that particularly lively operation known as flogging a dead horse".<ref name="OED"/><ref name="globe"/>
;Examples:


==Earlier related terms==
A teenage restaurant worker has repeatedly asked his boss for Friday night off to go see ] in concert. The boss has several times made it clear that Friday is going to be too busy and the worker's services are needed to help cope. Finally, after being asked one too many times for the night off, the boss responds with "Look, I've told you several times, you can't have Friday off, so stop asking. You are beating a dead horse".
The phrase may have originated in 17th-century slang, when a horse symbolized hard work.{{cn|date=December 2022}} A "dead horse" came to mean something that had become useless. In gambling, "playing a dead horse" meant wagering on something, such as a hand of cards, that was almost sure to lose. In a 17th-century quote from a collection of documents owned by the late ], Edward Harley,<ref name="OED"/>


{{quote|Sir Humphry Foster had lost the greatest part of his estate, and then, playing, as it is said, for a dead horse, did, by happy fortune, recover it again.<ref name="nicke" />}}
A driver receives a speeding ticket and appeals it at the court house to the Clerk Magistrate. After he loses his appeal, he goes home and starts complaining out loud to himself. Finally after listening to her husband complain for several days, the man's wife says to him "look either appeal that ticket to a judge to stop complaining. Otherwise, you are just beating a dead horse".


In ] printer's slang from the 18th and 19th centuries, work that was charged for on a bill, but not yet carried out, was called "horse".<ref>{{OED|horse}}</ref> Carrying out that work was said to be "working for a dead horse", since no additional benefit would be gained by the labourer when the work was complete.<ref name="OED"/>
Please note this term is not the same as ''"closing the barn door after the horse gets out"'' which refers to not taking action until after a problem has already occurred. Rather, "beating a dead horse" is about the futility of ones complaints or actions.


Many sailors were paid in advance for their first month's work. In his book ''Old England and New Zealand'', author Alfred Simmons gives a detailed explanation and background of the "Flogging the Dead Horse" ceremony, performed by a ship's crew at the end of the first month of their voyage at which time wages resumed.<ref name="Simmons" /> The sailors would get paid in advance of leaving the harbour, spend their money, and embark the ship with nothing. This situation allowed them to exclaim the horse symbolising their usual hard work, without money for motivation, was dead. However, once a month had passed, the sailors would have reached the ] where wages due and paid would prompt the horse to live again.
When one "closes the barn door after the horse gets out" there is still a chance to solve the problem by getting the "horse" (i.e. problem) back into the barn. But when you are "beating a dead horse", no amount of action or argument on your part is going to change the facts or the situation.


One of the earliest synonyms may be found in an ancient Greek play by ], '']'',


{{quote|Nay, allow the claim of the dead; stab not the fallen; what prowess is it to slay the slain anew?<ref name="antigo" />}}
== Links ==


== Criticism and proposed replacement by PETA ==
⚫ * - GoEnglish.com
In 2018, the organization ] (PETA) campaigned for the general public to cease usage of the idiom, along with other idioms which mentioned animals, to "remove ] from daily conversation". As an alternative, PETA proposed that the general public replace "beating a dead horse" with "feeding a fed horse". PETA justified the replacement by claiming on Twitter that in the same way, "as it became unacceptable to use racist, homophobic, or ableist language, phrases that trivialize cruelty to animals will vanish as more people begin to appreciate animals for who they are and start 'bringing home the bagels' instead of the bacon."
* - MIJokes.com

PETA faced ridicule for the suggestion, such as from ] hosts, ] and ].<ref name="Moore">{{cite web |last1=Moore |first1=Matt |title=Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers weigh in on PETA's 'anti-animal' phrases |url=https://lastnighton.com/2018/12/06/peta-animal-phrases-meyers-colbert |website=lastnighton.com |date=2018-12-06}}</ref>
<!-- <ref>{{Cite web |last=Thompson |first=Rachel |date=2018-12-05 |title=The internet mocks PETA after it suggests we stop using 'anti-animal' idioms |url=https://mashable.com/article/peta-anti-animal-language-twitter |access-date=2022-08-13 |website=Mashable |language=en}}</ref> -->

==References==
{{reflist|35em|refs=
<ref name="OED">{{OED|dead horse}}</ref>
<ref name="globe">{{Cite news |date=1872-08-01 |title=In the House |page=3 |work=]}}</ref>
<ref name="parl1859">{{Cite web |date=1859-03-28 |title=Second Reading |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1859/mar/28/second-reading |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190208181149/https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1859/mar/28/second-reading |archive-date=2019-02-08 |access-date=2019-02-08 |website=Commons and Lords Hansard |publisher=Official Report of debates in Parliament}}</ref>
<ref name="nicke">{{Cite book |last=Park |first=Thomas |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/harleianmiscell08oxfogoog/page/363/mode/2up |title=The Harleian Miscellany |year=1810 |page=364 |chapter=Nick, Nicker Nicked, or, The Cheats of Gaming Discovered}}</ref>
<ref name="Simmons">{{Cite book |last=Simmons |first=Alfred |title=Old England and New Zealand |date=2012-06-10 |publisher=Forgotten Books |page=113 |asin=B008GDXKRS}}</ref>
<ref name="antigo">{{Cite book |last=Sophocles |url=https://en.wikisource.org/Tragedies_of_Sophocles_(Jebb_1917)/Antigone |title=Antigone |translator-last=R. C. Jebb |quote=] |access-date=8 February 2019 |via=Wikisource}}</ref>
}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book |last=Isil |first=Olivia A. |title=When a Loose Cannon Flogs a Dead Horse There's the Devil to Pay: Seafaring Words in Everyday Speech |publisher=International Marine |year=1996 |isbn=0-07-032877-3}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Orr |first=Margaret |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.1080%2F18125441.1998.10877344 |title=17 ways to ride a dead horse |date=1998 |journal=Scrutiny2 |volume=3 |page=85 |doi=10.1080/18125441.1998.10877344 |issue=1}}
* {{Cite news |date=26 November 1999 |title=The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians |work=Work & careers |publisher=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/money/1999/nov/26/workandcareers1}}

==External links==
{{wiktionary|flog a dead horse|beat a dead horse}}
* {{Cite web |title=Sensational Etymologies |url=http://www.takeourword.com/TOW207/page1.html |website=TakeOurWord.com}}
⚫ * {{Cite web |title=Beating A Dead Horse |url=http://www.goenglish.com/BeatADeadHorse.asp |website=GoEnglish.com}}
* ]

]
]

Latest revision as of 21:36, 4 November 2024

Idiom about futile effort For other uses, see Flogging a dead horse (disambiguation).

A man sits atop a dead horse in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The idiom "to beat a dead horse" originated from the fact that flogging a dead horse will not compel it to do useful work.

Flogging a dead horse (or beating a dead horse in American English) is an idiom meaning that a particular effort is futile.

Early usage

The expression is said to have been popularized by the English politician and orator John Bright. Speaking in the House of Commons in March 1859 on Bright's efforts to promote parliamentary reform, Lord Elcho remarked that Bright had not been "satisfied with the results of his winter campaign" and that "a saying was attributed to him that he found he was 'flogging a dead horse'."

The earliest instance cited in the Oxford English Dictionary dates from 1872, when The Globe newspaper, reporting the Prime Minister, William Gladstone's, futile efforts to defend the Ecclesiastical Courts and Registries Bill in the Commons, observed that he "might be said to have rehearsed that particularly lively operation known as flogging a dead horse".

Earlier related terms

The phrase may have originated in 17th-century slang, when a horse symbolized hard work. A "dead horse" came to mean something that had become useless. In gambling, "playing a dead horse" meant wagering on something, such as a hand of cards, that was almost sure to lose. In a 17th-century quote from a collection of documents owned by the late Earl of Oxford, Edward Harley,

Sir Humphry Foster had lost the greatest part of his estate, and then, playing, as it is said, for a dead horse, did, by happy fortune, recover it again.

In journeyman printer's slang from the 18th and 19th centuries, work that was charged for on a bill, but not yet carried out, was called "horse". Carrying out that work was said to be "working for a dead horse", since no additional benefit would be gained by the labourer when the work was complete.

Many sailors were paid in advance for their first month's work. In his book Old England and New Zealand, author Alfred Simmons gives a detailed explanation and background of the "Flogging the Dead Horse" ceremony, performed by a ship's crew at the end of the first month of their voyage at which time wages resumed. The sailors would get paid in advance of leaving the harbour, spend their money, and embark the ship with nothing. This situation allowed them to exclaim the horse symbolising their usual hard work, without money for motivation, was dead. However, once a month had passed, the sailors would have reached the Horse latitudes where wages due and paid would prompt the horse to live again.

One of the earliest synonyms may be found in an ancient Greek play by Sophocles, Antigone,

Nay, allow the claim of the dead; stab not the fallen; what prowess is it to slay the slain anew?

Criticism and proposed replacement by PETA

In 2018, the organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) campaigned for the general public to cease usage of the idiom, along with other idioms which mentioned animals, to "remove speciesism from daily conversation". As an alternative, PETA proposed that the general public replace "beating a dead horse" with "feeding a fed horse". PETA justified the replacement by claiming on Twitter that in the same way, "as it became unacceptable to use racist, homophobic, or ableist language, phrases that trivialize cruelty to animals will vanish as more people begin to appreciate animals for who they are and start 'bringing home the bagels' instead of the bacon."

PETA faced ridicule for the suggestion, such as from late night comedy hosts, Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers.

References

  1. "Second Reading". Commons and Lords Hansard. Official Report of debates in Parliament. March 28, 1859. Archived from the original on February 8, 2019. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
  2. ^ "dead horse". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  3. "In the House". The Globe. August 1, 1872. p. 3.
  4. Park, Thomas (1810). "Nick, Nicker Nicked, or, The Cheats of Gaming Discovered". The Harleian Miscellany. p. 364.
  5. "horse". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  6. Simmons, Alfred (June 10, 2012). Old England and New Zealand. Forgotten Books. p. 113. ASIN B008GDXKRS.
  7. Sophocles. Antigone. Translated by R. C. Jebb. Retrieved February 8, 2019 – via Wikisource. Antigone
  8. Moore, Matt (December 6, 2018). "Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers weigh in on PETA's 'anti-animal' phrases". lastnighton.com.

Further reading

External links

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