fair-haired boy
1
7.5
- noun
:
favorito
Examples
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And I was their fair-haired boy.
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In the office, Alex was the fair-haired boy, always receiving the best assignments and praise.
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Despite the recent criticisms, Jacob remained the fair-haired boy of the team, constantly favored by management.
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For the last few months, Sarah has been the fair-haired boy in her class, receiving special treatment from the teacher.
Antonyms
How Favored
Surface Forms
Morphology
fair-haired + boy
The literal constituents 'fair-haired' (having light-colored hair) and 'boy' would lead a learner to interpret this as a blond male child; the idiomatic sense 'a person who is specially favored' does not follow from hair color or age/gender. This is an established idiomatic/historical usage whose meaning is unpredictable from the parts, so a B1 learner who only knows the words would likely not derive the intended sense.
Etymology
The phrase fair-haired boy may come from old times when rulers or leaders liked a young, light-haired person and gave him special treatment as the fair-haired boy. So fair-haired boy means someone who is clearly 'favored' or 'preferred'.