wooden spoon

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “why figurative uses?”)

IPA^(key): /ˈwʊdən spuːn/

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wooden spoon (plural wooden spoons)

1. A spoon made from wood, commonly used in food preparation.
2. (idiomatic) An ironic prize for finishing last in a competition.
   • 1858, Charles Kent, The Derby Ministry: A Series of Cabinet Pictures, page 237:

     Earnestly bent upon fulfilling the weighty, nay solemn, responsibilities of his office at all hazard, even at the risk of so far neglecting his parliamentary duties as to appear upon the division-list less frequently than any of his colleagues, Sir John Pakington wore the wooden spoon at the whitebait dinner, though with an air of waggery — almost as a decoration.

3. (Cambridge University slang, dated) The last junior optime who takes a university degree.
   • 1843, Thomas Macaulay, Sir James Mackintosh's History of the Revolution:

     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.

4. (US, university slang, dated) 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.

• wooden spooner
• wooden spoonist

• booby prize
• lanterne rouge