Redheaded Stepchild

[JustJon]

Mhas' thread about the doornail has got me wondering about a different idiom. Where did "Beat you like a red-headed stepchild" come from? And really, what does it mean?

It's one of those things people say, but I dunno if anyone who says it knows what's up with it.

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[jeffdwright2001]

I can only assume that it's geared towards a step-parent who is not red headed and become more incensed at the child while being reminded that kid is someone else's biologically (the red hair).

Just a thought.

[Wormwood]

Where did "Beat you like a red-headed stepchild" come from?


Mommy Dearest

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[JustJon]

Is it a quote from the movie or just a reference?

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[BoondockSaint]

I found this on a google search:

"... February has always been a sort of red-headed step child, picked on by everybody. First the chroniclers of time cut it a day short of the other months ...."

("The Afro-American" [Baltimore], Feb. 28, 1931)

That seems to be the earliest reference.

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[jeffdwright2001]

It's where someone has an unusually violent reaction to Willie Nelson. Oh wait, that's Red Headed Stranger.

nevermind . . . .

[Wormwood]

The more research I do I think I'm wrong about the Mommy Dearest bit.

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[JustJon]

Then you must go out and research harder, Wormwood

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[FUNKMAN]

Opie, Biffy, and Buffy...

probably some 'noname' comedian came up with it and it just got passed around...

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[Reephdweller]

Someone should make a section (http://www.osirusonline.com/wordsleuth.html) on their website with links to various word and phrase origins websites.

(sorry for the shameless plug, I know it's kind've whack (http://www.whackclothing.com/))

:p

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[serVice]

It'll sound odd, but the phrase could have come out of the old, anti-irish sentiment that his country used to have.

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[JustJon]

Someone should make a section (http://www.osirusonline.com/wordsleuth.html) on their website with links to various word and phrase origins websites.

(sorry for the shameless plug, I know it's kind've whack (http://www.whackclothing.com/))

:p

I'd say that's a chaotic (http://www.chaoticcomputing.com) concept (http://www.chaoticconcepts.com)

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[BoondockSaint]

Does anyone listen to me? I give you a quote from 1931 and everyone thinks it might be from a movie or such. They are all derived from what I gave you.

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[serVice]

It couldn't have been derived from that just because from that it had to be assumed that people would know what that reference meant. Its obvious that the phrase had to be from before than for people to even know what it meant.

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[BoondockSaint]

It couldn't have been derived from that just because from that it had to be assumed that people would know what that reference meant. Its obvious that the phrase had to be from before than for people to even know what it meant.

Ok. You go find an earlier reference that says exactly what the modern day meaning is.

Mine says:"... February has always been a sort of red-headed step child, picked on by everybody. First the chroniclers of time cut it a day short of the other months ...."

And seems to fit what the saying means today.


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[serVice]

It just seems that there is an assumption by the writer that the reader will know what the reference means.

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[BoondockSaint]

well it had to be created somewhere. Is it that hard to beleive that it's from a famous 1931 book? I also showed that "dead as a door nail" is from Shakespere. Do you question that?

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[DarkHippie]

I'm pretty sure it came from Dickens.

He never said it, of course, but so many of his protagonists fit that mold, and he was the premere popular author of the 1800s, that it seems to naturally fit.

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[jeffdwright2001]

well it had to be created somewhere. Is it that hard to beleive that it's from a famous 1931 book? I also showed that "dead as a door nail" is from Shakespere. Do you question that?

Speaking of Shakespeare:

"RED-HEADED VILLAIN - As Rosalind says in (Shakespeare's) 'As You Like it," His very hair is of the dissembling color. Villains have frequently been depicted in fiction as redheads, perhaps due to the tradition that Judas Iscariot (who betrayed Christ) had red hair. Redheads were once thought to be so deceitful that the fat of dead red-haired men was used as an ingredient in poisons and fish baits." From the "Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997). Page 568. (http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/bulletin_board/11/messages/755.html)

Edit: There were several threads on the board that could be found by typing stepchild or redhead in the search box.

This message was edited by jeffdwright2001 on 4-13-04 @ 8:18 AM

[Hosp]

I have my theory (http://www.spazcentral.com)

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[Reephdweller]

I have my theory


OMG!

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