sacred cown.
1. The cow as an object of veneration amongst Hindus.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > artefacts > symbol (general) > non-Christian symbols or images > [noun] > animal
Nandi1807
sacred cow1891
1891 J. L. Kipling Beast & Man in India vi. 116 The Muhammedan..creed is in opposition to theirs [sc. the Hindus] and there are rankling memories of a thousand insults to it wrought on the sacred cow.
1972 E. J. Sharpe in Hinnells & Sharpe Hinduism xxxvii. 121 As every visitor to India knows, the ‘sacred cow’ is not as a rule particularly well looked after.
1979 E. H. Gombrich Sense of Order vi. 167 The couch in Tutankhamun's tomb..was shaped like a sacred cow, ready to carry the pharaoh into the other life.
2. figurative (originally U.S.).
a. Journalism. (a) someone who must not be criticized; (b) copy that must not be altered or cut.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > journalism > appearance in the press > [noun] > person not to be criticized in press
sacred cow1910
society > communication > journalism > journal > matter of or for journals > [noun] > copy > that must not be altered
sacred cow1936
1910 Atlantic Monthly Mar. 308/1 In the office these corporations were jocularly referred to as ‘sacred cows’.
1922 U. Sinclair They call me Carpenter xxvi. 92 It doesn't matter, because I couldn't use the story. Mr. Stebbins is one of our ‘sacred cows’.
1923 O. G. Villard Some Newspapers 143 The editors gave me their word that there is..no list of men to be attacked and no ‘sacred cows’ (i.e., favourites to be spared) in their shop.
1936 W. E. Hall Reporting News 430 Sacred cow—copy which is not to be changed or cut.
1940 R. E. Garst Headlines & Deadlines 206 Sacred cow, slang for a subject or story in which the publisher or higher editors are interested and which must be printed.
1973 B. Broadfoot Ten Lost Years xxxi. 351 Newspapers had a lot more sacred cows than they do now.
b. An idea, institution, etc., unreasonably held to be immune from questioning or criticism.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > esteem > approval or sanction > quality of being approvable or acceptable > [noun] > something unreasonably immune to criticism
sacred cow1936
1936 M. Mitchell Gone with the Wind xiii. 240 I think of my brother, living among the sacred cows of Charleston, and most reverent towards them.
1955 Bull. Atomic Scientists Feb. 62/2 The need for widespread secrecy has become a sacred cow, a belief hedged by the deepest emotions and accepted without question by many Americans.
1961 L. Mumford City in Hist. vi. 182 Economic exploitation, slavery, war, specialized life-time labor... Plato's polis relied for daily meat and drink on these sacred but diseased cows.
1962 Listener 5 July 10/2 Business is the ‘sacred cow’ here.
1963 Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch 16 Dec. 19/1 Military bases..are sacred cows in Congress.
1967 L. Coulthard & B. Smith in G. Wills & R. Yearsley Handbk. Managem. Technol. 207 A new movement, variously described as ‘management by objectives’, ‘improving management performance’ or ‘performance planning’, now promises to sweep away some of the ‘sacred cows’ of management development.
1971 Country Life 4 Nov. 1223/3 By clearing away any sacred-cow reputation clinging to the master he stirs the reader to look for himself.
1978 Maledicta 1977 1 111 He has for many years attacked most of their sacred cows and revealed them to be dry and motheaten skins.
1978 L. Heren Growing up on The Times iv. 152 I was not an Establishment man. I had often caused trouble for the paper because of my refusal to give proper obeisance to sacred cows.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1982; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1891