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涨知识:13个让你看不懂的英文习语的起源

2016年04月11日 13:37:58 来源: 中国日报网

涨知识:13个让你看不懂的英文习语的起源

  BONUS: If it's "raining cats and dogs," it's raining very hard outside. No one is sure where this phrase comes from.

  额外福利:如果外面在“下猫和狗”(raining cats and dogs),说明雨下得很大。没有人确切知道这句习语的来源。

  The researchers for the study said this phrase is "an instance of rhyming slang after frogs were whipped into the air during a storm and came back down again with the rain (as testified to in historical accounts)."

  研究者称,据历史记载,此短语是个押韵俗语,来形容“青蛙在起风暴时被卷到天上,下雨时又随雨水摔到地面”。

  Another possible origin comes from a 1592 sentence (documented by the Oxford English Dictionary) that reads: "Instead of thunderboltes shooteth nothing but dogboltes or catboltes."

  另外一个出处可能是最早出现于1592年的一句话(收录在《牛津英语词典》中):“这下的哪里是雷雨,分明是在下铁钉。”。

  The "dog bolts" were iron bolts to secure a door or a gate, while "cat bolts" were used to fasten together pieces of wood. In other words, they likened a heavy rainstorm to heavy metal bolts falling out of the sky. At some point, "bolt" was dropped either as a joke or to make it easier to say, causing the phrase to make no sense today.

  Dog bolts是铁螺钉,通常用来固定房门或院门,而cat bolts则通常被用来将几块木头固定在一起。换句话说,这两个词将暴风雨比作从天上掉下来的重重的金属钉。在某些情况下,省略bolt也许是因为玩笑,也许是因为说起来顺口,所以这个习语的本意在今天并说不通。

  英文来源:businessinsider

  译者:实习生孙美真

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