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
amocaine
antilipotropic
appetitsild
astreopora incrustans
atrabilaric
bao toh
biological oil-spill control
blank specifier
blocks out
business-headlines
carbonate(d) spring
cell discruption
centrifugal tar extractor
chemical foaming agent
dhansiya (dhansia)
dirty tape
dot-and-dash signal
duledge
enclosed steam-engine
epicnemis
epitriquetrum
Faserzeolith
Gartner's tonometer
global navigation satellite system (gnss)
Grenville series
hajdari
hard winter wheat flour
Hashak
Hkedaung
homolytic dissociation,homolytic fission
horizontal concentration
human relation theory
ice fishing
immunoevasion
induction type relay
infra-red lamp
international radio consultative committee (ccir)
international terrorisms
intrafat
iodine-iodophor
ischemic ulcer
isocyanoethane
jacco
jarlsberg
kerato-iridocyclitis
kinematic diagram of mechanism
know your way around something
lampkins
Leens
lentivirus
let something be known
lighting design
live test
look through cache
lorer
low alkali glass
manioca
maurice wilkinss
miskal
motor-car
numbered clause
nurse-led
Nysäter
oil in water type coolant
opening lines
panel threshold regressive model
perichaetine
picture varnish
pricky
propeller tipping
pulsations
purpurescent
put someone on his ear
qualitative chemical analysis
real frequencyaxis
rules committee
sailin'
satellite RNA
self-contained automatic navigation system
self-schooling
semitransept
send back
sequential network
silk reeling frame
Sir Ernst Boris Chain
slicked-backs
Smirnowit
spiracular grooves
SS (solid state)
storm-water system
tempered hardness
test of end
traffic engineer
trialkylchlorosilane
trip coil
unitisation
universal oil pressure bale press
visibility minimum
x-axes
ydemed
zerofriction
zoning plan