Laughing-Stock
Meaning
A figure or object of ridicule and laughter.
Origin
Laughing-stock is now usually written as a single hyphenated word, but it was previously the two- word phrase, ‘laughing stock’.
It’s moderately old and there are at least two citations of it dating back to the 16th century. John Frith’s, An other boke against Rastel, 1533:
“Albeit … I be reputed a laughing stock in this world.”
and Sir Philip Sidney’s, An apologie for poetrie, 1533:
“Poetry …..is fallen to be the laughing stocke of children.”….
The age of the phrase may be the reason that it is often linked with the practice of putting people into stocks as a punishment. The stocks were a means of punishment in use at the time the phrase was coined, by which people were tortured or ridiculed. Victims were held by having their ankles, and occasionally the wrists too, trapped in holes between two sliding boards. The punishment, although not as harsh as the pillory, in which people were confined by the neck, was severe and certainly not intended to be humorous.
