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"Booby Prize"---is this a phrase only understood by those over 30?

Samai139

By Samai139
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Samai139 Collaborator

Samai139

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I had lunch with my 32 year old niece and she has two sons---three and five--and she related a story about a friend using the phrase "booby prize" in front of the boys. The older boy laughed and asked his mother why anyone would give a boobey (breast) as a prize. The friend was embarassed and apologized to my niece for not thinking about the phrase before using it. Another woman at the lunch, a twenty-something, said she had never heard the phrase and asked what it meant.

My question: is the phrase "booby prize" commonly used and if so where and by whom? I tried looking it up in a Slang Dictionary and could not find it. My next step will be to check the Urban Dictionary, but I'd like to hear from others here.

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Samai139 Collaborator

Samai139

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Update to my original post: no listing in the Urban Dictionary for Booby Prize, but Wikipedia has the definition I am familiar with, and I have heard of Booby Hatch but rarely used it. Maybe I'll start.

Ah breadbox---haven't thought about this kitchen/pantry standard in years. Thanks for the memory jolt.

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leigh.bess.toad Mentor

leigh.bess.toad

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Hope you don't mind me sharing it, for those who have never read it:

 

The Unicorn in the Garden -- by James Thurber

 

http://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/unicorn2.gif

 

Once upon a sunny morning a man who sat in a breakfast nook looked up from his scrambled eggs to see a white unicorn with a golden horn quietly cropping the roses in the garden. The man went up to the bedroom where his wife was still asleep and woke her. "There's a unicorn in the garden," he said. "Eating roses." She opened one unfriendly eye and looked at him.

 

"The unicorn is a mythical beast," she said, and turned her back on him. The man walked slowly downstairs and out into the garden. The unicorn was still there; now he was browsing among the tulips. "Here, unicorn," said the man, and he pulled up a lily and gave it to him. The unicorn ate it gravely. With a high heart, because there was a unicorn in his garden, the man went upstairs and roused his wife again. "The unicorn," he said,"ate a lily." His wife sat up in bed and looked at him coldly. "You are a booby," she said, "and I am going to have you put in the booby-hatch."

 

The man, who had never liked the words "booby" and "booby-hatch," and who liked them even less on a shining morning when there was a unicorn in the garden, thought for a moment. "We'll see about that," he said. He walked over to the door. "He has a golden horn in the middle of his forehead," he told her. Then he went back to the garden to watch the unicorn; but the unicorn had gone away. The man sat down among the roses and went to sleep.

 

As soon as the husband had gone out of the house, the wife got up and dressed as fast as she could. She was very excited and there was a gloat in her eye. She telephoned the police and she telephoned a psychiatrist; she told them to hurry to her house and bring a strait-jacket. When the police and the psychiatrist arrived they sat down in chairs and looked at her, with great interest.

 

"My husband," she said, "saw a unicorn this morning." The police looked at the psychiatrist and the psychiatrist looked at the police. "He told me it ate a lilly," she said. The psychiatrist looked at the police and the police looked at the psychiatrist. "He told me it had a golden horn in the middle of its forehead," she said. At a solemn signal from the psychiatrist, the police leaped from their chairs and seized the wife. They had a hard time subduing her, for she put up a terrific struggle, but they finally subdued her. Just as they got her into the strait-jacket, the husband came back into the house.

 

"Did you tell your wife you saw a unicorn?" asked the police. "Of course not," said the husband. "The unicorn is a mythical beast." "That's all I wanted to know," said the psychiatrist. "Take her away. I'm sorry, sir, but your wife is as crazy as a jaybird."

 

So they took her away, cursing and screaming, and shut her up in an institution. The husband lived happily ever after.

 

Moral: Don't count your boobies until they are hatched.

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orbital sander Enthusiast

orbital sander

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Arrested Development was full of such wordplay, mainly insinuating that one particular character was gay. If you've not watched it, I highly commend it.

 

Kevin Slater

 

I know it was quite popular, but I have never been much of a TV watcher. I will have to check it out online. I think that I heard that they are going to make a movie soon as well, is that correct?

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BewareofNick Proficient

BewareofNick

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Courtesy of wikipedia:

 

The word "boob" stems from the Spanish bobo meaning stupid, which in turn came from the Latin 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.

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