whipping boy

[hellywellywo]

what is the exact meaning of whipping boy?

is it just someone to blame everything on or is it a bit morethan that? thanx and lol  :)

[jno]

in olden times boys who made mistakes in class were regularly whipped by teachers. But when you were educating a prince, of course, you didn't dare. So he had a whipping boy. The prince makes mistakes, the boy gets whipped. And you thought your job was bad?

So yes, it's basically someone who takes the punishment when things go wrong - not quite the same as a scapegoat, I don't think, because he's not necessarily blamed for the mistakes.

[hellywellywo]

thankyou very much jno.  My hubby is with army out in cyprus and he is really p***ed because he is very at his trade and his superior has been using as his whipping boy, and i Wanted to the background for terminology.

[Peter Pedant]

I agree with jno - whipping boys hey-day is 1580-1660. Aubrey of Aubrey's brief lives mentions them and I think pepys 1660-5 does.

So if HWW's husband is in the army the analogy is just, quite good in fact because of the hierarchy and also the history.

In fact historically, money passed hands - I think whipping boys got paid, and some turned into consciences because they followed their masters around whining oh please sir, dont do that - i'll get a real hiding. This of course is not what HWW husband was thinking when he used the phrase.

[hellywellywo]

well thank you very much you two.  The saying goes "you learn something everyday" and i feel i have.  I do have to say that the exact phraseology that my husband used about the whipping boy-ness, (if you get my meaning)  would have been most definately edited.

My question has been answered.