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
acetylchitobiose
actinomycetaless
AFI (Air Filter Institute)
alumiwis
amplitude contour
angle plates
approach cone
articulated jack
astracon
Beaucerons
black-ink line
blasting log
Bolva
brick-cap parapet
brushless selsyn
Cameron Falls
carbuncle on dorsum of foot
chiasmatype theory
chirospasm
conjugate-palmate
Consulid
corpus callosotomy
dandoes
design earthquake value
desulphurising
differential of an analytic homomorphism
discontinuous permafrost zone
distaffs
distiches
ekta
electric furnace iron
electronic platform scale
elizabethan-styles
entity-identifier
force of cut
free water aquifer
fuggedaboudit
ganaderia
Gars
glaucocystophytes
grain shoveler
hagedorns
halictidaes
Heliograph.
hilali
hydration reactor
icies
iijima
impedite
in high places
interdiffusional convection
interlaminar zone
intermediate diaphragm
international-security
interosseous ligament of the forearm
invar
joe pye weed
kaolin mineral
knee shield
Learning without thought is labor lost
listsibs
local contraction
local unions
Logan, Mt.
magnetic loop
maximum allowable junction temperature
megopis (spinimegopis) formosana lanhsuensis
momentum operator
morphine rash
mud saver sub
musculi glutaeus maximus
Namoi R.
neurofascin
non-maskable interrupt
non-nucleated
ocean sciences
paco
paralytic chorea
pedaldynamo
perfect positive correlation
piddock
pneumatic control
polirzer's test
professional organization address
propleg
province index
regular premium policy
rellished
seikens
senate-house
spatial subdivision
summary of labo(u)r costs
taeniae violacea
Thanh An
triavils
tributaryless
Turukhanskaya Nizmennost'
underwater diving
wakonassin l.
waveform influence
work the ropes