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A booby prize is a joke
Straightdope.com
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A booby prize is a joke prize
A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements.
usually given in recognition of a terrible performance or last-place finish. A person who finishes last, for example, may receive a booby prize such as a worthless coin. Booby prizes are sometimes jokingly coveted as an object of pride.
Booby prizes may also be given as consolation prizes to all non-placing participants of a competition.
Origin
The word "boob" stems from the Spanish meaning silly, which in turn came from the Latin {{lang, la,balbus
Balbus is Latin for "stammerer", and may refer to:
* Quintus Lucilius Balbus (fl. 100 BC), Stoic philosopher mentioned in the works of Cicero
* Marcus Atius Balbus, grandfather of the Roman emperor Augustus
* Lucius Cornelius Balbus (consul 40 BC ...
meaning stammering
Stuttering, also known as stammering, is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words, or phrases as well as involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the ...
; the word booby to mean dunce
Dunce is a mild insult in English meaning "a person who is slow at learning or stupid". The etymology given by Richard Stanyhurst is that the word is derived from the name of the Scottish Scholastic theologian and philosopher John Duns Scotus.
...
appeared in 1599.
Booby prize literally means "idiot's prize". The OED
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...
dates this usage to 1893. Booby trap
A booby trap is a device or setup that is intended to kill, harm or surprise a human or another animal. It is triggered by the presence or actions of the victim and sometimes has some form of bait designed to lure the victim towards it. The trap m ...
and "booby hatch" are related terms./ref>
See also
*Bozo bit
The term bozo bit has been used in two contexts. Initially a weak copy protection system in the 1980s Apple classic Mac OS, the term "flipping the bozo bit" was later reused to describe a decision to ignore a person's input. It is a whimsical term ...
*Golden Raspberry Awards
The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, ...
*Ig Nobel Prize
The Ig Nobel Prize ( ) is a satiric prize awarded annually since 1991 to celebrate ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. Its aim is to "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think." The name of ...
*No-Prize
The Marvel No-Prize is a fake or satirical award given out by Marvel Comics to readers. Originally for those who spotted continuity errors in the comics, the current "No-Prizes" are given out for charitable works or other types of "meritorious ser ...
References