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Very passe
I propose it is substituted with the 'term pot of gold' ? lol
I propose it is substituted with the 'term pot of gold' ? lol
Why is the term wooden spoon used?
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(a) (Cambridge University, Eng.) The last junior optime who takes a university degree, -- denoting one who is only fit to stay at home and stir porridge. ``We submit that a wooden spoon of our day would not be justified in calling Galileo and Napier blockheads because they never heard of the differential calculus.'' --Macaulay. (b) In some American colleges, the lowest appointee of the junior year; sometimes, one especially popular in his class, without reference to scholarship. Formerly, it was a custom for classmates to present to this person a wooden spoon with formal ceremonies.
eh, I'd prefer to think of it as your parents when you were a kid threatening to smack you on the arse with the wooden spoon. Now either this means you are at the arse end of the ladder, or you need a good spanking with a wooden spoon to get your arse off the bottom.
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I know I can't wait to take mine to our round 21 clash against the bombers. Hopefully they will have it all wrapped up by then.
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Chodders said:
A pot of gold
Kel Richards wrote about "Wooden spoon" as the Classic FM Breakfast "Word of the Day" on Friday 21 June, 2002.
The wooden spoon is a real or imaginary prize given in fun to the person or team coming last in a competition. But where did this idea of connecting coming last with wooden spoons come from? Well, when the classical tripos (or final degree examination) was instituted at Cambridge in 1824 it was debated by what name to call the person who came last on the list. (Why they felt that had to have a label for the one who came last I don’t know – except that public humiliation is a grand old English public school tradition.) It so happened that the last name on the list was Wedgwood (a famous Cambridge name – whether related to the porcelain making family or not, I don’t know). And this person’s name was adopted in a slightly modified form: the last in the classical tripos was said to be the “wooden wedge”. When the mathematical tripos was established at Cambridge (also early in the 19th century) they chose to call the last on their list of examination results the wooden spoon (perhaps from the example already set by the classical scholars). In fact, at one time the candidate who actually came last in the examinations was presented with a real wooden spoon. Today the phrase has shifted from the real to the metaphorical, and the application has broadened to all areas of competition, but, aside from that, the meaning has not changed. Nor has the intention – public humiliation. All in good fun, of course.
I am told that the term is not understood in North America.
http://woodenspoon.net/2004_06.html
The wooden spoon is a real or imaginary prize given in fun to the person or team coming last in a competition. But where did this idea of connecting coming last with wooden spoons come from? Well, when the classical tripos (or final degree examination) was instituted at Cambridge in 1824 it was debated by what name to call the person who came last on the list. (Why they felt that had to have a label for the one who came last I don’t know – except that public humiliation is a grand old English public school tradition.) It so happened that the last name on the list was Wedgwood (a famous Cambridge name – whether related to the porcelain making family or not, I don’t know). And this person’s name was adopted in a slightly modified form: the last in the classical tripos was said to be the “wooden wedge”. When the mathematical tripos was established at Cambridge (also early in the 19th century) they chose to call the last on their list of examination results the wooden spoon (perhaps from the example already set by the classical scholars). In fact, at one time the candidate who actually came last in the examinations was presented with a real wooden spoon. Today the phrase has shifted from the real to the metaphorical, and the application has broadened to all areas of competition, but, aside from that, the meaning has not changed. Nor has the intention – public humiliation. All in good fun, of course.
I am told that the term is not understood in North America.
http://woodenspoon.net/2004_06.html
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the points been missed here i think lol
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arrowman said:Which would put it in the same category as "World Champions".
Classic! it has always cracked me up that the yanks can play the world championhip of baseball between teams all form the same country.
Good old America forever!
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St. Kilda hand them out at funraisers often. They have lots of them to share. 
From the Oxford English Dictionary:
wooden spoon: a spoon made of wood; spec. one presented by custom at Cambridge to the last of the Junior Optimes, i.e. the lowest of those taking honours in the Mathematical Tripos; hence, this position in the examination, or the person who takes it. Also in extended use, referring to the lowest of a list or set in other connexions. Hence wooden-spooner, -spoonist, a competitor who is awarded the ‘wooden spoon’; a loser.
‘At Yale, formerly, the student who took the last appointment in the Junior Exhibition; later, the most popular student in a class’ (Cent. Dict.).
1803 Gradus ad Cantab. 137 Wooden Spoon, for wooden heads:..the lowest of the Junior Optimes. 1820 BYRON Juan III. cx, Sure my invention must be down at zero, And I grown one of many ‘wooden spoons’ Of verse (the name with which we Cantabs please To dub the last of honours in degrees). 1858 EARL MALMESBURY Mem. (1884) II. 127 The ‘wooden spoon’ which is given to the Minister in the House of Commons who has been in the fewest divisions. 1883 in Standard 20 June 2/7 There was no opposition to the presentation of the time-honoured ‘Wooden Spoon’. 1900 Westm. Gaz. 19 Mar. 8/2 The international matches..have now all been played,..Ireland, who won the championship last year..have only 1 point, and take the ‘wooden spoon’. 1927 Daily Express 23 Mar. 13/3 Champions and wooden spoonists of the Isthmian League last season were opposed on the Civil Service ground at Chiswick. 1954 J. FINGLETON Ashes crown Year 275 Somerset were wooden-spooners last summer and will be so again. 1973 Nation Rev. (Melbourne) 31 Aug. 1442/3 4BH slips to fourth place in the five station market, with perennial wooden spooners, 4BK, only 2000 listeners behind. 1975 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 26 May S5/1 England won the British soccer championship..with Wales, once again the wooden spoonists. 1981 Daily Mail 25 Nov. 30 (heading) A flat rate from the wooden spoonists.
wooden spoon: a spoon made of wood; spec. one presented by custom at Cambridge to the last of the Junior Optimes, i.e. the lowest of those taking honours in the Mathematical Tripos; hence, this position in the examination, or the person who takes it. Also in extended use, referring to the lowest of a list or set in other connexions. Hence wooden-spooner, -spoonist, a competitor who is awarded the ‘wooden spoon’; a loser.
‘At Yale, formerly, the student who took the last appointment in the Junior Exhibition; later, the most popular student in a class’ (Cent. Dict.).
1803 Gradus ad Cantab. 137 Wooden Spoon, for wooden heads:..the lowest of the Junior Optimes. 1820 BYRON Juan III. cx, Sure my invention must be down at zero, And I grown one of many ‘wooden spoons’ Of verse (the name with which we Cantabs please To dub the last of honours in degrees). 1858 EARL MALMESBURY Mem. (1884) II. 127 The ‘wooden spoon’ which is given to the Minister in the House of Commons who has been in the fewest divisions. 1883 in Standard 20 June 2/7 There was no opposition to the presentation of the time-honoured ‘Wooden Spoon’. 1900 Westm. Gaz. 19 Mar. 8/2 The international matches..have now all been played,..Ireland, who won the championship last year..have only 1 point, and take the ‘wooden spoon’. 1927 Daily Express 23 Mar. 13/3 Champions and wooden spoonists of the Isthmian League last season were opposed on the Civil Service ground at Chiswick. 1954 J. FINGLETON Ashes crown Year 275 Somerset were wooden-spooners last summer and will be so again. 1973 Nation Rev. (Melbourne) 31 Aug. 1442/3 4BH slips to fourth place in the five station market, with perennial wooden spooners, 4BK, only 2000 listeners behind. 1975 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 26 May S5/1 England won the British soccer championship..with Wales, once again the wooden spoonists. 1981 Daily Mail 25 Nov. 30 (heading) A flat rate from the wooden spoonists.
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LongBomb said:
Maybe MilneDog44 can tell us?
Oh thats right, he seems to forget his team has the most spoons in AFL/VFL history and would prefer to talk like his team has won the last 10 Grand Finals when, in fact, they have done nothing
bringbackbucky said:
As I understand it, the seppo's call it the 'World Series' because in the 1920's or whenever it was sponsored by a newspaper called "The World" and the name has just stuck.
I think there may also be a Canadian team in there as well.
Yze_Magic said:
Maybe MilneDog44 can tell us?
Oh thats right, he seems to forget his team has the most spoons in AFL/VFL history and would prefer to talk like his team has won the last 10 Grand Finals when, in fact, they have done nothing
Insolvent teams don't get a say, We at least haven't had a premiership drought as long as yours
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