Sacred cow (idiom)
{{Short description|Something unreasonably immune from criticism}}
{{Other uses of|Sacred cow}}
Sacred cow is an idiom, a figurative reference to cattle in religion and mythology. A sacred cow is a figure of speech for something considered immune from question or criticism, especially unreasonably so.{{Cite web |title=sacred cow meaning|url=https://www.theidioms.com/sacred-cow/ |website=Theidioms.com}}{{Better source|date=June 2022}} This idiom is thought to originate in American English, although similar or even identical idioms occur in many other languages.
Background
The idiom is based on the popular understanding of the elevated place of cows in Hinduism and appears to have emerged in America in the late 19th century.{{Cite web |last=Martin |first=Gary |title=Meaning and origin of the phrase sacred cow|url=http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/309250.html |website=Phrasefinder|date=11 December 2023 }}{{cite journal|doi=10.3390/ani8050064|title=The Sheltering of Unwanted Cattle, Experiences in India and Implications for Cattle Industries Elsewhere|author=Uttara Kennedy, Arvind Sharma and Clive J.C. Philips|journal=Animals|year=2018|volume=8|issue=5|page=64|pmid=29701646|pmc=5981275|doi-access=free}}{{cite book|title=India's sacred cow|url=http://spraakdata.gu.se/taraka/SacredCow.pdf|author=Marvin Harris}}{{cite web|url=https://www.iucn.org/sites/dev/files/import/downloads/preliminary_literature_review_on_sacred_species__3_.pdf|title=Preliminary Literature Review On Sacred Species|author=Dr Gloria Pungetti, Dr Anna Maclvor|access-date=24 July 2021|archive-date=24 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210724135557/https://www.iucn.org/sites/dev/files/import/downloads/preliminary_literature_review_on_sacred_species__3_.pdf|url-status=dead}}
A literal sacred cow or sacred bull is an actual cow or bull that is treated with sincere respect.
One writer has suggested that there is an element of paradox in the concept of respect for a sacred cow, as illustrated in a comment about the novelist V. S. Naipaul: "V. S. Naipaul ... has the ability to distinguish the death of an ordinary ox, which, being of concern to no one, may be put quickly out of its agony, from that of a sacred cow, which must be solicitously guarded so that it can die its agonizing death without any interference."{{Cite book |last=Pollack |first=David |url=https://archive.org/details/readingagainstcu00poll |title=Reading against culture: ideology and narrative in the Japanese novel |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-8014-8035-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/readingagainstcu00poll/page/185 185] |url-access=registration}}
In popular culture
The motto of the satirical magazine The Realist was "Irreverence is our only sacred cow".{{Cite book |last1=DeMott |first1=Benjamin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eeEvB78ClU4C&pg=PA72 |title=Supergrow: essays and reports on imagination in America |last2=Berger |first2=Arthur Asa |publisher=Transaction Publishers |year=2003 |isbn=0-7658-0521-9 |edition=reprint |pages=72–73}} Discordians use the identically pronounced symbol the "sacred chao".{{cite web |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313723876 |title=Discordianism |last=Cusack |first=Carole |date=January 2013 |website=researchgate.net |publisher=Research Gate |access-date=22 December 2023 |quote=}}
See also
References
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External links
{{wiktionary|sacred cow}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sacred Cow (Idiom)}}
Category:19th-century neologisms
Category:American English idioms
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