• Source: Flogging a dead horse

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 [Bright] that he [had] 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






Further reading


Isil, Olivia A. (1996). When a Loose Cannon Flogs a Dead Horse There's the Devil to Pay: Seafaring Words in Everyday Speech. International Marine. ISBN 0-07-032877-3.
Orr, Margaret (1998). "17 ways to ride a dead horse". Scrutiny2. 3 (1): 85. doi:10.1080/18125441.1998.10877344.
"The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians". Work & careers. The Guardian. November 26, 1999.




External links



"Sensational Etymologies". TakeOurWord.com.
"Beating A Dead Horse". GoEnglish.com.
File:En-au-flog a dead horse.ogg
• Source: Flogging a Dead Horse

Flogging a Dead Horse is a compilation album of singles by Sex Pistols, released after their break-up, and includes the four songs issued as singles A-sides that were included on Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, three of their B-sides, and the six A-sides taken from The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle and one B-side, "My Way".




Background


By the time the record was released, the group was finished as a musical unit: the "Sex Pistols" consisted only of manager Malcolm McLaren, and designer Jamie Reid. Their relationship with Virgin records was difficult, and Reid's tacky sleeve design was intended to warn people against another cash-in; it was largely interpreted as a hip joke, and seems to have hurt sales very little.
Reid's first sleeve design consisted of the title hastily scrawled across his designs for the Never Mind the Bollocks (front cover) and The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle albums (back cover). It was printed, and copies exist, but was rejected by Virgin and never made it to record stores. For its replacement, Reid used a photo of a model from the cheapest agency he could find, along with dull letraset lettering, making the record look like a cheap easy listening album. The back cover featured a fake plastic dog turd on top of a gold disc of the Never Mind the Bollocks LP, a reference to a scene in the film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle in which Steve Jones defecates on the gold disc awarded to Johnny Rotten for Never Mind The Bollocks and the woman with ants on her face eats it. The album was released without the band's involvement or permission.




Title meaning


The title has several ironic meanings: the idiomatic one of the saying "Flogging a dead horse" reflecting the fact that the Pistols' endeavours were now finished, futile and pointless; and the British slang use of 'flogging' to mean 'selling' - i.e. the Pistols' management, in true punk style, were overtly referencing that they were trying to get as much money for as little effort as possible from the album's sales.




Track listing


Side one
"Anarchy in the U.K." (Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones, Glen Matlock, Paul Cook) – 3:33
"I Wanna Be Me" (Rotten, Jones, Matlock, Cook) – 3:06
"God Save the Queen" (Rotten, Jones, Matlock, Cook) – 3:21
"Did You No Wrong" (Rotten, Jones, Matlock, Cook, Wally Nightingale) – 3:14
"Pretty Vacant" (Rotten, Jones, Matlock, Cook) – 3:18
"No Fun" (Iggy Pop, Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton, David Alexander) – 6:26
"Holidays in the Sun" (Rotten, Jones, Sid Vicious, Cook) – 3:21
Side two
"No One Is Innocent" (Jones, Cook, Ronnie Biggs) – 3:03
"My Way" (Paul Anka, Claude François, Jacques Revaux) – 4:05
"Something Else" (Eddie Cochran, Sharon Sheeley) – 2:12
"Silly Thing" (Jones, Cook) – 2:53
"C'mon Everybody" (Cochran, Jerry Capehart) – 1:57
"(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" (Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart) – 3:09
"Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle" (Jones, Cook, Julien Temple) – 4:24
"No One Is Innocent" features train robber Ronnie Biggs and is listed as "The Biggest Blow" on the cover. "My Way", "Something Else" and "C'Mon Everybody" are sung by Sid Vicious and represent his complete studio recordings with the Sex Pistols. "Silly Thing" is sung by drummer Paul Cook, although the version that was released as a single in the UK was sung by Steve Jones. "Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle" is sung by several hopefuls auditioning to be the Sex Pistols' new lead singer - the winner was Edward Tudor-Pole. The album sleeve features no individual credits.




Certifications






References

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Sex Pistols
• Flogging a dead horse
• Flogging a Dead Horse
• Flogging a dead horse (disambiguation)
• Dead Horse
• No good deed goes unpunished
• The Ballad Of Trotsky
• Sex Pistols discography
• John Lydon
• Envy (2004 film)
• Christopher Plummer