时间:2019-02-05 作者:英语课 分类:英语口语


英语课

   这则习语的来源有两种说法,一种认为return to one's mutton原是直译自法国田园诗中的一句: 多情的男女牧羊人在牧场上谈情说爱、海阔天空,最终还得回到现实,回到自己的羊群中来。


  另一种说法是出自14世纪的法国喜剧《巴德林律师》(L'Avocat Pathelin)。有个毛料商指控牧羊人犯了虐待羊群罪,牧羊人请把德林律师为他辩护,毛料上在陈述事情的时候竟然无中生有地诋毁说,巴德林律师曾偷过他店里的一块布。法官制止说:“我的朋友,我们还是回到有关羊这件事吧。”
  不管怎么说return to one's muttons是从法语译过来的,法语中“羊”叫做mouton,英语中“羊”叫sheep。法语进入英语后,mouton演变成了mutton。在英语中,mutton只指“羊肉”而不指“羊”。因为在当时英国的法国人大都是有钱人,他们吃“羊肉”时用mutton,而牧羊的盎格鲁撒克逊族的穷人称“羊”为sheep。久而久之,英语中就把“羊”叫做sheep,“羊肉”叫做mutton。
  **例句点津**
  Cut short the nonsense and return to one's muttons. 闲话少说,言归正传。

标签: 口语
学英语单词
a couple of minutes
adhesion kinetics
Aksumitic
an atmosphere
antithrombin
antiunification
Ardea
as they come
astoundingly
autophagocytic vacuole
autosomnambulism
average dose
backend machine
balrogs
besty
buck basket
bug shoe
chain tier
Chirita liboensis
coiii
coloproctologist
confidence limit
copperclad steel wire
cyanobactin
Cytrolane
diagnostic significance of five colors
dilatometric investigation
direct feed
diversity system
effect of priorities
electronic package section
evaporativity
femto-seconds
financist
FPLA (field programmable logic array)
free floating hydrophyte community
Fresnes-en-Woëvre
fuel duct
furnace binding
gas sensing
gibelotte
give it the herbs
glyptis
God botherer
goshpeck
Helix hortensis
Illigera rhodantha
initiation ritual dance (australian aboriginal)
interceder
isoppe
Japonian
jeweller's rouge
jig
kernel language
kevork
klein-levin syndrome
line focus tube
loaf filler
locking rail
logical one
Lomba de Maia
masi
matterof-factly
multinational corporation
neutron spin echo method
open circuit contact
or other
ordinary method of thinning
ostracine
otter
parting strap
perfectly elastic demand
periscope binocular
phereses
playin'
Plunket Society
porodinous
project-level
promontorium (pl.promontoria)
recession gas generator
recyclabilities
right-thinking
room air plant monitoring system
sauks
secret judgment
small angle x-ray diffraction
Spode, Josiah
starring
stupes
surface magnetism
sweep across
talalay
tear someone to pieces
teutenberg
tickbird
tobacco mosaic viruss
under its own power
walk toward
water piston
white alum
wolfskins
xerophagy, xerophagia