Meaning
A contest between a small, weak underdog and a vastly stronger favourite - used whenever a minnow takes on a giant, in court, in business, in sport, and usually with the quiet implication that the minnow just might win. Universally understood and journalistically irresistible; strictly the story credits God rather than pluck, but the underdog sense has long since absorbed the name. Regional use: General English; Biblical origin.
Origin
First Samuel 17 sets the duel in the Valley of Elah: for forty days the Philistine champion Goliath issues his twice-daily challenge to single combat until David, a shepherd boy sent with bread for his brothers, declines Saul's armour, takes a sling and five smooth stones, and drops the giant with one shot to the forehead before cutting off his head with Goliath's own sword. The giant's height itself is contested in the manuscripts - the Dead Sea Scrolls and Josephus give four cubits and a span, about six foot nine, while the later Masoretic text's six cubits and a span makes him nearly ten feet - and the older stratum of the text at 2 Samuel 21:19 credits the killing to one Elhanan. The secular metaphor has overtaken the theology: Leonard Greenspoon observes that writers use it for the little guy winning rather than for the biblical emphasis on divine power, and the dated record runs from a New York Times internet start-up story in 2000 to the Guardian on David Haye boxing Nikolai Valuev in 2009 and the Philippines-China Spratly dispute.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- a David and Goliath battle
- a David and Goliath struggle
- David versus Goliath
Usage Examples
- The village shop's fight with the supermarket chain was pure David and Goliath, and the shop won on parking.
- Fans love a David and Goliath cup tie, which is why the minnows draw the crowd whenever the big club visits.
- Her legal aid practice specialized in David and Goliath cases against the airlines.