Sour grapes
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Sour grapes is the false denial of desire for something sought but not acquired; to denigrate and feign disdain for that which one could not attain. This metaphor originated from the fable The Fox and the Grapes by Aesop, where the protagonist fox fails to reach some grapes hanging high up on a vine, retreats, and says that the grapes are sour anyway. The phenomenon has been seen as a challenge to the rational-actor view within the social sciences, with its significance debated by scholars such as Jon Elster and Steven Lukes.
The phrase is sometimes also used to refer to one expressing, in an unsportsmanlike or ungracious way, anger or frustration at having failed to acquire something (i.e. being a "sore loser"), regardless of whether the party denies their desire for the item. Not including the denial of desire is technically a slipshod extension of the metaphor because it is inconsistent with the phrase's origin in the fable and the notion of the grapes being "sour". [1]
[edit] References
- ^ Garner, B., A Dictionary of Modern American Usage, Oxford University Press, 1998 ISBN 0-19-507853-5
[edit] See also
- Sour Grapes (book), a book of poems by William Carlos Williams
- Sour Grapes (play), a 1926 comedy by Vincent Lawrence
- Sour Grapes (1987 film) Comedy by J. Stephen Peace
- Sour Grapes (film), a 1998 film written and directed by Larry David
- Sour Grapes (ska-band), a Ska-reggae-punk band from Fontana California
- Strawberry Shortcake, a children's animated series with a female villain called Sour Grapes
