Chrysti The Wordsmith: Beat a Dead Horse

Greetings and welcome to Christie the wordsmith. To beat a dead horse is metaphorically to be labor an argument beyond the point of productivity. The rather graphic metaphor is clear. If the horse you ride or plow with has died flogging or beating the fallen creature will not cause it to rise and resume its labor. There are several claims to the origin of this cliche. Some sources allege the Roman playwright Plutus was the first to express the sentiment in one of his dramas in 195 B.C. and that our English expression is a translation of the Latin original in his Facts on File dictionary of word and phrase origins. Robert Hendrickson traces the expression to beat or in this case flog a dead horse to the British reform bill of 1867 which called for more democratic representation. British politician John Bright said in a speech that trying to roust parliament from its apathy about the reform bill would be like trying to flog a dead horse to make it pull a load. The

December 1935 issue of a yachting magazine cites yet another possibility involving the custom of advancing the common sailor one month's pay called a dead horse. Before he went to sea during the first month out he was said to be working off the dead horse or working until the dead horse was flogged. I'm Christie the wordsmith. The series is produced and recorded in the studios of FM on the campus of Montana State University in Bozeman. CHRISTIE The wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry sued web dot com.