News5 mins ago
Black Sheep
2 Answers
Where did the saying black sheep of the family oringinate ?
Answers
Best Answer
No best answer has yet been selected by Eaton. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.I've always thought that it was just that black sheep are a minority and the person is a bit unusual. It has to be admitted though that previous generations freely used the word black to denote something that was not very nice. As a child, I was once in a park with a younger child of African origin, when two elderly ladies came by. One said "Look, it's black". The other said "Yes, they've got them working in food shops now; it's disgusting". I found it as unpleasant then as I do now, but such attitudes were by no means unusual in those days. How much worse must they have been when the phrase originated?