# Sacred Cow. Is the phrase offensive? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 24, 2007, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacred-cow-is-the-phrase-offensive/397272 "2007-03-24T01:42:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacred-cow-is-the-phrase-offensive/397272/21 "2017-01-28T19:22:34Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I was actually thinking of a similar issue–should Christians be offended if someone uses the phrase “that’s my/his cross to bear?” (And I’m implying that no, no they shouldn’t.) > > Yes, I understand that is an issue that some people do not think should be questioned, examined, or changed. > > There should be a term for something like that… Your position appears to be that you should decide for others whether they are allowed to take offense at casual references to their religious beliefs outside the context of discussion of that religion. You don’t have to be religious or even respect religion at all to avoid being offensive to those who do hold certain strong beliefs. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacred-cow-is-the-phrase-offensive/397272/22 "2017-01-28T19:33:34Z")
> [@TSBG](#): > > Your position appears to be that you should decide for others whether they are allowed to take offense at casual references to their religious beliefs outside the context of discussion of that religion. Your position appears to be that you should decide for others whether they are allowed to think that others can be thin skinned and petty for what they “take offense” in. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacred-cow-is-the-phrase-offensive/397272/23 "2017-01-28T19:51:07Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > The difficulty would be in finding a substitute that is not a long, awkward circumlocution like the PC crowd wants to foist on us these days. No other term fits. > I particularly like the book \*Science Is a Sacred Cow \* by Anthony Standen. Shibboleth comes close. A longstanding in-group custom which has become obsolete and is (over-)ripe for re-examination. The problem is finding the one person in 100 who knows that word. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacred-cow-is-the-phrase-offensive/397272/24 "2017-01-28T19:59:44Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Shibboleth comes close. A longstanding in-group custom which has become obsolete and is (over-)ripe for re-examination. > > The problem is finding the one person in 100 who knows that word. I think that you should go around asking people if they know that word–and kill the ones that don’t. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacred-cow-is-the-phrase-offensive/397272/25 "2017-01-28T20:00:06Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Shibboleth comes close. A longstanding in-group custom which has become obsolete and is (over-)ripe for re-examination. > > The problem is finding the one person in 100 who knows that word. [Here’s](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php) your one in a 100. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacred-cow-is-the-phrase-offensive/397272/26 "2017-01-28T20:07:46Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > [Here’s](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php) your one in a 100. It isn’t a word in everyone’s base vocabulary, but I think that LSL is [overestimating it’s obscurity](https://www.google.com/search?q=Shibboleth&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=Shibboleth&tbm=nws&start=0). (I don’t see it being synonymous to “sacred cow”, though–much closer to “dog whistle.” ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacred-cow-is-the-phrase-offensive/397272/27 "2017-01-28T20:47:41Z")
> [@TSBG](#): > > Turn the situation on its head. > > Imagine a Catholic sitting in a room full of Hindu car designers. They are trying to figure out if they can turn the basic Tata car into a luxury model. One Hindu says, “that’s as impossible as turning a piece of bread into the actual body of Christ.” > > Or an evangelical Protestant in a meeting with his IT peers, discussing a problem with some newly acquired software. One refers to the manual, and another chimes in, “believing what the manual says is like believing every word in the Christian Bible is literally true.” > > Now do you see how the term “sacred cow” might offend some Hindus? Terrible analogy. A better one would be “Hail Mary pass”. Or “that subject is taboo”. Or “That’s not Kosher”. None of those is offensive. ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacred-cow-is-the-phrase-offensive/397272/28 "2017-01-28T21:10:06Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Terrible analogy. A better one would be “Hail Mary pass”. Or “that subject is taboo”. Or “That’s not Kosher”. None of those is offensive. You’ve deliberately chosen phrases that are not offensive and so are sidestepping my point. None of those denigrates the religious belief behind it in the way that the phrase “sacred cow” does, at least in the usages being described above. ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacred-cow-is-the-phrase-offensive/397272/29 "2017-01-28T21:11:18Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Your position appears to be that you should decide for others whether they are allowed to think that others can be thin skinned and petty for what they “take offense” in. No, my position is that one shouldn’t needlessly insult other people. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacred-cow-is-the-phrase-offensive/397272/30 "2017-01-28T21:12:50Z")
ETA: Mostly pre-empted by **TSBG** ’s rejoinder. > [@John\_Mace](#): > > Terrible analogy. A better one would be “Hail Mary pass”. Or “that subject is taboo”. Or “That’s not Kosher”. None of those is offensive. I’m not sure I agree. Although in principal I dislike the neutering of language in the name of overwrought offense-taking. The key question in these cases is where/when well-wrought shades into overwrought. The point of the “sacred cow” idiom is not that whatever topic or practice is religiously inviolate. It’s that it’s stupid and ripe for change / removal / slaughter. “The daily TPS report update meeting is a sacred cow” is another way of saying “The daily TPS report update meeting is a stupid pointless ritual we ought to remove”. Which in turn is not far from saying “Hindu beliefs and practices ref bovines are a stupid pointless ritual we ought to remove.” Conjugated that way I have a hard time defending it. Any Hindu annoyance at the comparison would be well-wrought, not overwrought. Probably not worth mass marches in the streets, torching the Student Union, etc. But still it’s pretty impolite speech it’s probably nicer to avoid. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacred-cow-is-the-phrase-offensive/397272/31 "2017-01-28T21:24:54Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > The point of the “sacred cow” idiom is not that whatever topic or practice is religiously inviolate. It’s that it’s stupid and ripe for change / removal / slaughter. > > “The daily TPS report update meeting is a sacred cow” is another way of saying “The daily TPS report update meeting is a stupid pointless ritual we ought to remove”. [It really isn’t](http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/sacred+cow). ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacred-cow-is-the-phrase-offensive/397272/32 "2017-01-28T22:24:54Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > ETA: Mostly pre-empted by **TSBG** ’s rejoinder. > > I’m not sure I agree. Although in principal I dislike the neutering of language in the name of overwrought offense-taking. The key question in these cases is where/when well-wrought shades into overwrought. > The point of the “sacred cow” idiom is not that whatever topic or practice is religiously inviolate. It’s that it’s stupid and ripe for change / removal / slaughter. > > “The daily TPS report update meeting is a sacred cow” is another way of saying “The daily TPS report update meeting is a stupid pointless ritual we ought to remove”. Which in turn is not far from saying “Hindu beliefs and practices ref bovines are a stupid pointless ritual we ought to remove.” > > Conjugated that way I have a hard time defending it. Any Hindu annoyance at the comparison would be well-wrought, not overwrought. Probably not worth mass marches in the streets, torching the Student Union, etc. > > But still it’s pretty impolite speech it’s probably nicer to avoid. Thanks for elaborating on this, I was going to post something similar. And I strongly agree about neutering the language. I just think we ought not to automatically dismiss any offense taken as needless PC pandering. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacred-cow-is-the-phrase-offensive/397272/33 "2017-01-28T22:53:08Z")
I see now (thanks **Darren** ) that there’s a side issue that may really be the main issue: Does “sacred cow” mean an unquestionable assumption or practice? Or does it mean an unquestionable assumption or practice the speaker believes is ripe for overturning? I always understood the meaning to be #1 for sure, but with a very heavy dollop of #2. You (well _I_) wouldn’t use the phrase except to ridicule whatever that assumption or practice was. IOW, “sacred cows” exist to be slaughtered, not to be respected. Perhaps it’s like “niggardly”. A word I don’t use not because of what it properly means, but because of what so many people misunderstand it to mean. Once you can’t trust that your entire audience understands only the “good” meaning you’ve pretty much lost use of the word. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacred-cow-is-the-phrase-offensive/397272/34 "2017-01-28T23:01:28Z")
“Golden calf” makes an almost perfect substitute. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2017, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacred-cow-is-the-phrase-offensive/397272/35 "2017-01-28T23:19:20Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > …a long, awkward circumlocution like the PC crowd wants to foist on us these days. Now _that’s_ offensive. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2017, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacred-cow-is-the-phrase-offensive/397272/36 "2017-01-29T00:52:32Z")
Offensive to the PC crowd? Too bad. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2017, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacred-cow-is-the-phrase-offensive/397272/37 "2017-01-29T01:31:53Z")
I love sacred cow served on bread with barbecue sauce. Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2017, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacred-cow-is-the-phrase-offensive/397272/38 "2017-01-29T02:21:39Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > Offensive to the PC crowd? Too bad. Remember that the next time someone posts something you don’t like about Jehovah’s Witnesses. (Mind you, I think the idea that “sacred cow” being offensive is insane) ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2017, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacred-cow-is-the-phrase-offensive/397272/39 "2017-01-29T06:16:26Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Remember that the next time someone posts something you don’t like about Jehovah’s Witnesses. > > (Mind you, I think the idea that “sacred cow” being offensive is insane) What difference would it make? Nobody who has posted such a thing so far seems to have cared about that; why would it change? Tact has not been a feature of respondents on this board… ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2017, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacred-cow-is-the-phrase-offensive/397272/40 "2017-01-29T10:35:47Z")
The thing is, only Hindus should decide what’s offensive to Hindus, just as Blacks decide what’s offensive to Blacks, gays decide what’s offensive to gays, etc. Other people should just respect that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacred-cow-is-the-phrase-offensive/397272.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sacred-cow-is-the-phrase-offensive/397272.md?page=3)