Читать книгу Bees Knees and Barmy Armies - Origins of the Words and Phrases we Use Every Day - Harry Oliver - Страница 16

The ‘black sheep’ of a family or group of unrelated people is the one out of favour, an outsider, an oddball or a useless member. The expression originates from the eighteenth century, when the wool of a black sheep born into a herd of white sheep could not be dyed as a white sheep’s could, yet it required just as much maintenance for the shepherd, making it of little worth. The colour black, particularly during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, was also associated with wickedness and the devil.