Aunt Sally

English Etymology Apparently after My Old Aunt Sally, the title of a blackface minstrel song written by Dan Emmett in 1843. Proper noun Aunt Sally A traditional game in which balls are thrown to break the pipe in the mouth of a wooden figurine resembling an old woman. from 19th c. en 1905 1902 Five Children and It Edith Nesbit Dodd, Mead and Company New York VIII 220 There were some swings, and a hooting-tooting blaring merry-go-round, and a shooting-gallery and Aunt Sallies. I Mrs. Morel did not like the wakes. There were two sets of horses, one going by steam, one pulled round by a pony; three organs were grinding, and there came odd cracks of pistol-shots, fearful screeching of the cocoanut man's rattle, shouts of the Aunt Sally man, screeches from the peep-show lady. en figurative chiefly UK A figure drawing criticism or ridicule, especially when prejudiced or unwarranted. from 19th c. en w:W. B. Maxwell The Future of the Novel The New York Times 1912-11-24 https://www.nytimes.com/1912/11/24/archives/the-future-of-the-novel-wb-maxwell-claims-that-the-novel-has-a.html 0362-4331 But the novel is something more than a national institution; it has become the recognized channel of communication between the crank and his victims; it is the shooting gallery through which we fire our messages at that dear old Aunt Sally, the British Public. en 1999 w:J. M. Coetzee Disgrace Vintage 95 He is helpless, an Aunt Sally, a figure from a cartoon, a missionary in cassock and topi waiting with clasped hands and upcast eyes while the savages jaw away in their own lingo preparatory to plunging him into their boiling cauldron. en Manmohan Singh’s burning ambition The Economist 2008-06-26 https://www.economist.com/asia/2008/06/26/manmohan-singhs-burning-ambition 0013-0613 IN FOUR years as India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh has come to resemble a bearded and turbaned Aunt Sally. https://web.archive.org/web/20250125211208/https://www.economist.com/asia/2008/06/26/manmohan-singhs-burning-ambition 25 January 2025 en https://www.irishexaminer.com/business/arid-20226290.html Stakes couldn’t be higher 2013-03-23 Kyran Fitzgerald Irish Examiner The finance minister, a true Aunt Sally figure, was dispatched to Moscow in search of backing. https://web.archive.org/web/20250125211059/https://www.irishexaminer.com/business/arid-20226290.html 25 January 2025 an object set up to invite such criticism en straw man Translations wooden figure Welsh: cy cocyn anelu aiming haycock, cy cocyn hitio hitting haycock en eponyms