Booby prize
{{Short description|Joke prize given for last place or terrible performance}}
File:Discoloured wooden spoon.jpg is a common booby prize in sporting events]]
A booby prize is a joke prize usually given in recognition of a terrible performance or a last-place finish. Booby prizes are typically worthless, but are sometimes jokingly coveted as an object of pride. Notable examples of booby prizes include the wooden spoon, which originated at the University of Cambridge as an award for the lowest grade in a mathematics exam before becoming popular in sports,{{Cite news |date=2024-03-16 |title=Six Nations: Wales receive the Wooden Spoon - but what is it? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-68575509 |access-date=2025-02-19 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}} and the title of {{lang|fr|lanterne rouge}}, given to the last-place finisher of the Tour de France.{{Cite news |last=Ingle |first=Sean |date=2018-08-06 |title=Last but not least: Craddock wears Tour’s red lantern as badge of courage |url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/aug/06/lawson-craddock-tour-de-france-lanterne-rouge |access-date=2025-02-19 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}
The word booby stems from the Spanish {{lang|es|bobo}} meaning silly, which in turn came from the Latin {{lang|la|balbus}} meaning stammering; the word booby to mean dunce appeared in 1599. Booby prize literally means "idiot's prize". The OED dates this usage to 1893. Booby trap and booby hatch are related terms.{{Cite web |title=The Straight Dope: What's the origin of "booby trap"? |url=http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mbooby.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081120184432/http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mbooby.html |archive-date=2008-11-20 |access-date=2025-02-11 |website=www.straightdope.com |language=en |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |date=2024-10-02 |title=Booby Prize and Booby Traps. Why Booby? |url=https://www.wytv.com/home/booby-prize-and-booby-traps-why-booby/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241003024252/https://www.wytv.com/home/booby-prize-and-booby-traps-why-booby/ |archive-date=2024-10-03 |access-date=2025-02-19 |work=WYTV |language=en-US |url-status=live }}