Meaning
A person, institution or practice considered immune from question or criticism, especially when that immunity is unreasonably or reflexively granted. The metaphor implies the object is treated with the untouchable reverence Hindus traditionally accord the cow, so that nobody dares challenge, reform or 'slaughter' it. Common in politics, business and management talk: every budget, department or party has its sacred cows. Nearly always derogatory or sceptical: it implies the immunity from criticism is unreasonable. Frequently in negative or hostile constructions - no sacred cows, to slaughter a sacred cow. Do not confuse with the literal venerated cattle of India. Regional use: Figurative use traced to American English; now common throughout the English-speaking world.
Origin
A figurative extension of the literal sacred cows of Hinduism, cattle being revered and protected in Indian religious tradition. The OED's factsheet dates the noun to the 1890s, with earliest evidence from 1891, in the writing of J. L. Kipling - John Lockwood Kipling, Rudyard's father, who spent his working life in India - a citation arising from writing about India, so it may be literal or transitional rather than fully figurative. The references disagree mildly on the figurative sense's arrival: Wikipedia's article says the idiom appears to have emerged in America in the late nineteenth century, while Wiktionary dates the figurative sense to the early 1900s, also American. The satirical magazine The Realist later ran the motto 'Irreverence is our only sacred cow' (1967).
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- no sacred cows
- sacred cows
- slaughter a sacred cow
Usage Examples
- For decades the annual trade show was a sacred cow that nobody in management dared cancel.
- The new auditor promised there would be no sacred cows in her review of departmental spending.
- Pension reform remains the party's great sacred cow, untouched for a generation.