red-headed stepchild

[Wilson Gray]

What does "frail" mean in this context?

There's also "beat like a rented mule." It appears to say that one
would act more viciously toward a rented mule than toward one's own
mule. But wouldn't damaging someone else's property cause more trouble
than damaging one's own property?

-Wilson Gray

On Mar 4, 2005, at 10:30 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: red-headed stepchild
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> Don't know about earlier, but I have heard "I'll frail him like a
> red-headed stepchild" in Tennessee within the past ten years or less.
>
> JL
>
> Sam Clements <SClements at NEO.RR.COM> wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Sam Clements
> Subject: red-headed stepchild
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> I can find a 1910 cite in Newspaperarchive that uses this metaphor
> about =
> the South. =20
>
> Is there anything earlier? I can understand that a stepchild might be =
> treated poorly, but why the red-headed? Were red heads thought less of
> =
> in history?
>
> samclem
> Doing research on a Straightdope subject
>
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