Since when has "flogged" come to mean something other than "beaten (often) with a stick"? After doing a search, our freind Phranz (in another *life) seems to be the only one who has used it (here) as I've heard it recently as meaning "sold":
"...The only place where Welsh was flogged as a tourist concept was at Portmeirion, but we went there because of "The Prisoner", not because it was Welsh.
...yet, I could accept my original meaning in his context (which I'm sure I did at the time).
BTW - "Dr. Flog" is the famous Chicago area "Golf Rd." backwards (an in-car passenger game called "read the signs backwards" that we play on-occasion).
first cited in 1919, according to OED:
c. slang (orig. Mil.). To sell or offer for sale, orig. illicitly.
1919 [Implied in FLOGGING vbl. n. 2d.]. 1925 FRASER & GIBBONS Soldier & Sailor Words 96 To flog, to sell something not the vendor's own to dispose of. 1951 G. HANLEY Consul at Sunset 125 He was dead... His kit was collected and flogged to those who would buy it in the mess. 1966 J. PORTER Sour Cream x. 134 Filching state property and flogging it to the eager populace is a common enough crime in the Soviet Union as it was with us during the war. 1967 M. DRABBLE Jerusalem the Golden v. 112 Let's go..and look at the ghastly thing that Martin flogged us.
[1919 War Terms in Athenæum 1 Aug. 695/2 ‘Flogging’, the illegal disposal of Army goods. ]
>After doing a search, our friend Phranz (in another *life) seems to be the only one who has used it (here) as I've heard it recently as meaning "sold":
Nope. That sort of meaning is very common where Pfranz came from, and where he now blights the landscape, I imagine.
actually, I think it's fairly common in the Upper Midwest too, Kev -- at least outside of Chicago.
To flog one's dong, to flog one's donkey, to flog one's dumber brother, to flog one's mutton, to flog the bishop, to flog the dog, to flog the dolphin, to flog the hog, to flog the infidel and the flog the log ... are (or were) all English euphemisms for masturbation.
Many wince at the vast personal fortunes amassed by PBS personalities unable to resist cashing in on their "legitimacy," flogging such products as toys, self-help books and touring shows.
- Gwendolyn Freed, (Mpls.) Star Tribune November 19, 1999
"People may spend a fortune on the home, but it doesn't look like they're flogging their wealth," said Canada-based Lloyd Beckedorf of Moose Mountain Log Homes.
Gaile Robinson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram December 8, 2001
Most of the media hype around the Internet and the Web today is directly attributable to the fact that almost every media conglomerate and multinational corporation in the world now has a Web site and is flogging its address far and wide... Denise Caruso, Utne Reader Guide to the Internet
"It used to be that producers would make a profit, with the idea that they would put that money into a new show," said Duncan, whose Broadway credits include "Peter Pan," "My One and Only" and, most ecently, "Chicago." "Now, they want to make a killing, and so they're flogging these shows into 10-, 12-, 14-year runs. It hurts the whole creative community."
Dominic P. Papatola, (St. Paul) Pioneer Press Jul. 18, 2004
Hmm--looks like it may be common in the Midwest outside of Chicago and Louisville. It is definitely not in common use here.
And that's Pfranz, Muzak, Pfranz, I'll have you know!
Well, if pflogging was selling stolen goods (or permanently borrowed ones), what would it be to give away stolen goods?
(The superfluous 'p' is to ap-'p'-ease Pfranz.)
The acronym PFLOLS stands for Portable Fresnel-Lens Optical Landing System but I couldn't figure a way to work it into a sentence.
I hooded the swag to people who needed it the most.
