Booby prize

A booby prize is a joke prize usually given in recognition of a terrible performance or last-place finish. A person who finishes last, for example, may receive a booby prize such as a worthless coin. Booby prizes are sometimes jokingly coveted as an object of pride.

A wooden spoon is a common booby prize in sporting events

Booby prizes may also be given as consolation prizes to all non-placing participants of a competition.

Origin

The word "boob" stems from the Spanish bobo meaning silly, 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.[1]

gollark: If not it should.
gollark: Does it use skynet?
gollark: I should see about making a sensible event-based krist client, or at least a wrapper for the silly jua one.
gollark: Indeed.
gollark: I'm probably going to rewrite Wyvern yet again to communicate with a non-CC server to simplify item handling and make setup even more annoying.

See also

References

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