We often hear the saying that there is no free lunch in the world. Do you know how this sentence comes from?

/kloc-In the 20th and 9th centuries, some bars in America offered "free lunches" to customers. The so-called lunch is actually just some shortcakes to be sent with beer; The so-called free, of course, is not true, no wine to drink, no cake to eat. So, at that time, some people said that there is no such thing as a free lunch.

In the 1970s, economist Milton Friedman wrote a book with this sentence as its title. He also quoted this sentence many times in other books and speeches. So, this sentence became popular again.

Sometimes, we don't believe that we will get some preferential treatment, so we can use this "Friedman's famous saying".

For example:

I don't believe that he gave us money without any ulterior motives. Nothing for nothing.

I don't believe he didn't send us money with ulterior motives. Nothing for nothing.

honeymoon

Everyone must know honey. Honey and the moon together mean "honeymoon". Honeymoon refers to the first period of marriage for newlyweds (not necessarily the first month after marriage, although many people have this illusion). After a long period of expectation and cultivation, lovers in love finally came together hand in hand. Can't the feelings of both sides be as sweet and mellow as honey?

There is a saying that the word honeymoon comes from the folk tradition of Babylon. This ancient country has always maintained such a tradition. In the first month of her daughter's marriage, the girl's father will let her son-in-law drink honey wine every day, hoping that the marriage of the younger generation will always be happy and sweet.

However, from the etymological point of view, this statement is wrong. Honeymoon first appeared in16th century. Honey refers to the sweetness of marriage, but month does not refer to the lunar month that many people think. It is a bitter hint to warn people that marriage is happy and sweet, but this sweetness, like the ups and downs of the moon, is only temporary (so cherish it! ), marriage means that both parties should bear the burden of life together, bear the ups and downs of life together, and endure the ups and downs of life together.

dear

Darling is probably the most popular nickname in English and one of the oldest words. As early as 888 AD, Darling appeared in the form of de Ou Lin. The word darling has many uses, generally as a noun to mean "dear person" and as an adjective to mean "dear; Cute ",darling can also be used to address loved ones or family members, such as darling. Please bring me another lollipop. Honey, please bring me another small candy. ) darling can also be used as a metaphor, but it is often ironic that someone is deeply loved by a less likable person or organization. For example, senators are the darling of oil companies. )

Although it is widely used, the source of darling is quite simple. Darling comes from the old English word deor or deore, meaning "beloved" or "dear", which will naturally remind you of today's dear. The affix ling means a person, so today both deorling and darling mean dear people.

In addition, between couples, in addition to dear, sweetheart, pet, dear, love and so on can also be used. Lovers often use emotional words such as honey and baby, while some old-fashioned couples with children like to call each other mother and father. There are more traditional names than this. For example, in19th century novel Pride and Prejudice, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet address each other very formally. Of course, there are many more casual and unique names between couples, such as teddy bear, Honeybun, sugar doll and so on. However, the special meaning is probably only understood by themselves.

Teach fish how to swim.

Have you ever heard of fish that can't swim? Have you ever heard that fish drown because they can't swim? Anyone who has this kind of worry is no different from Qi State, which has been ridiculed for hundreds of years and worried that the sky is falling, and will certainly become a joke for people after dinner.

As an instinct, fish can swim naturally and adapt to underwater life completely. If someone wants to teach an axe, what's the difference between showing off his axe skills in front of Lu Ban and showing off his articles in front of Kong Old Master Q?

So "teaching others to teach an axe" means "teaching others to teach an axe" and "selling articles in front of Confucius". Similar expressions in English include: teach a dog to chase rabbits; ; Tell the President where the White House is; Teach the Pope how to pray; Use China's motto in front of Confucius.

John Bull

In political cartoons, Uncle Sam (Uncle Sam) always represents the United States. The representative of Britain is the ruddy and chubby John Bull.

How did the name John Niu come from? English people have a close relationship with dogs, especially bulldogs. Therefore, at the beginning of the18th century, the writer and doctor Dr. Abbas Nott wrote The History of John Bull, which advocated the peaceful coexistence of Britain and France. The name of the protagonist in the book is John Niu, and the author uses him to represent Britain. Since then, John Bull has become synonymous with Britain and typical British people.

For example:

His ruddy face and strong figure make him look like a real John Bull.

He looks like a typical Englishman because of his ruddy face and fat figure.

Romance

Speaking of romance, you can imagine it. It is a word that young men and women like very much. Do you know how this word comes from?

Speaking of it, romance has something to do with Rome. The ancient Romans used Latin, but later Latin gradually disappeared and evolved into Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian and so on. These languages are collectively called Romans.

In the Middle Ages, the stories of samurai roaming the rivers and lakes to win the hearts of beautiful women were mostly written in Roman, among which French was the most widely used. Therefore, such stories are called romance novels. The "romance" of the French is world-famous, which is probably related to this.

Nowadays, romance can be used not only to refer to love novels that are as far away from reality as dreams, but also to refer to a romantic relationship or romantic atmosphere.

For example:

She thought it would be the greatest romance of her life, but he left her only a few weeks later.

She thought it would be something she would never forget, but only a few weeks later, she was abandoned by him.

Romance of Wild Life in the West (Romance of Wild Life in the West)

South operating system

Perhaps everyone knows that S.O.S is a distress signal, so it is associated with the biggest tragic shipwreck in history-the Titanic shipwreck. While deeply regretting those lost souls, they also complained that they failed to send out distress signals in time, and other ships and maritime rescue organizations failed to rescue them in time. Many people think that S.O.S is composed of the first letters of some words, such as saving our souls (saving our lives! Save our boat (save our boat! ), stop other signals (stop sending any other signals! ), it must sink (the ship is sinking! ) and so on. Is that really the case?

In fact, S.O.S is an international Morse code rescue signal, not an abbreviation of any word. In view of the frequent maritime accidents at that time, it was often impossible to send out distress signals in time and organize rescue as quickly as possible, resulting in heavy casualties and property losses. 1908, the international radiotelegraph convention officially identified it as an international universal distress signal. The combination of these three letters has no practical significance, just because its code-(three dots, three dashes, and then three dots) is the most easily sent by the sender and recognized by the receiver.

Before 1908, the distress signal on the international high seas was C.Q.D, which had no practical significance, although many people thought it was fast and dangerous. (Come on, danger! ) abbreviation. Although 1908 international radiotelegraph convention organization has clearly stipulated that S.O.S should be used for maritime distress signals, C.Q.D is still used. In the early days of the sinking of Titanic, other ships and rescue organizations failed to organize rescue in time, mainly because they did not understand the outdated C.Q.D distress signal sent by the operator on board. It was not until the whole ship was almost submerged that the S.O.S distress signal was sent out, but at this time, who might have the power to save those innocent souls who were about to die at the bottom of the sea forever?

mermaid

Mermaid is the legendary mermaid, with a human head and body, but a fish's tail. Many people know the pure, beautiful and kind little mermaid from Andersen's fairy tales. Today, the little mermaid statue has become a famous tourist attraction in Copenhagen, Denmark, and also a symbol of Denmark.

The word mermaid consists of two parts, mer and maid, both from old English, namely mere (sea) and mayde (girl). As early as before Andersen, there was a legend of mermaid, but at that time, although the mermaid in people's minds also had extraordinary beauty and magic, she would seduce past sailors and destroy the ship on the rocks. People call it Sai Ren. Mermaids also have corresponding mermaid people, which are used to represent male mermaids.

In fact, all legends have origins, so do you know what the prototype of "Mermaid" is? Guess what? It is a manatee. Manatee is a large mammal aquatic animal, which lives in warm shallow water and feeds on underwater plants. The male manatee is called dugong, and the female manatee is called dugong. Whenever a mother manatee comes out with her young to breastfeed, it looks like a kind mother floating on the water with her baby in her arms from a distance.

empirical rule

Finger rule? That is, what you can think of when you snap your fingers. We usually call it "empiricism". In real life, it is generally used to refer to what can be learned from experience:

A rough and practical method for evaluating or measuring something, which is based on past experience rather than accurate measurement (not completely reliable in every situation or detail), is a rough and practical estimation method (usually based on experience without accurate measurement, so it is not always possible *).

For example, according to experience, you should cook for 20 minutes for each pound of chicken.

According to experience, it takes 20 minutes to cook a catty of chicken.

The origin of OK

Besides yes and no, Okay is probably the most popular English word in the world. But where did it come from? Traditionally, linguists hold their own opinions.

Some people say that okay was invented by Indians. There is such an Indian tribe named Chocktaw, who lives in the rich Mississippi River valley and lives by planting and fishing. Whenever there is a problem, Chocktaw's people will sit around the tribal leaders and discuss it together. If someone agrees with others, they will nod and say "Okeh", which means "That's it". When Europeans first arrived in America, they heard a lot of Indian words and developed them into English words. Today, the names of many cities, rivers and mountains in the United States are derived from Indian languages.

There is also a credible saying: the word Okay was invented by a political group in the19th century. A man named Martin Van Buren will run for president. His supporters set up a club to promote him. The name of the club is "Okay Club". It is said that the letters O and K are taken from Van Buren's hometown and his birthplace, Old Kinderhook, new york.

For such a popular word, naturally everyone may have their own story. However, I believe that the whole world will agree that okay is a pure American vocabulary and an excellent example of words crossing different languages. There is only one thing to be reminded: OK is commonly used in spoken English. In written language, we can use words such as consent, approval, approval and compliance to make it more formal.

I was not born yesterday

One morning, my friend Bob and I made an appointment to buy a car in a used car shop. When we arrived at the second-hand car shop, the enthusiastic salesman took pains to introduce us a lot. Introducing a white car, he said, "This 9 1 car only ran 20,000 miles." He also said that the car was used by an old lady who only drove to church once a week. But Bob replied, "I wasn't born yesterday."

I find it interesting. How old are you? Who doesn't know? Later, when I asked him, Bob explained to me that it was an English slang, meaning "I'm not a child, don't lie to me." I suddenly realized.

rains cats and dogs

"To rain cats and dogs" means that everyone may know that it is raining cats and dogs, but someone has to ask, why do you use "cats and dogs" to describe heavy rain in English instead of "hippopotami", "elephants" and "buckets"?

In fact, at first people did use Torin pitchforks, Torin shovels, darning needles, chicken coops and hammer handles to describe "continuous heavy rain". "The downpour" first appeared in Richard Brom's 1652 play "City Wisdom": "It rained heavily." Polecats is a kind of cat similar to ferrets, but the word later became a cat in jonathan swift's works. In 1738, the phrase used by Swift in the book Etiquette Dialogue is a familiar form: "I know Sir John will go, although he will definitely be a cat and a dog."

The encyclopedia of the origin of words and phrases contains explanations of their origins. The book says, "/kloc-When it rained heavily in England in the 7th century, streets in some cities would flow into rivers, and a large number of dead cats and dogs would float in the sewage." During the rainstorm in England in the17th century, some city streets became dirty and turbulent rivers carrying many cats and dogs. )

In his Dictionary of Phrases and Fables, Brewer said that this phrase originated in Northern Europe: "In Norwegian mythology, cats are thought to influence the weather. The witch who came in the storm is said to be a cat. " Dogs and wolves are followers of Odin, the god of storms, among which dogs are "symbols of the wind" ("In Norwegian mythology, cats are considered to have a great influence on the weather. It is said that witches riding on storms will become cats. " Dogs and wolves are servants of Odin, the god of storms, and dogs are "signals of the wind").

Another way of saying about the origin of this phrase is that it comes from an old French word "catdoupe", which means "waterfall or cataract". The pronunciation of "catdoupe" in French is somewhat similar to that of "cat and dog", so it's going to rain cats and dogs.

Finally, the single phrase "cats and dogs" has its own usage, meaning "low-priced, highly speculative stocks". This usage began to appear in 1879 and once appeared in the New York Post of 1984.

Love me, love my dog

One day, my friend Carmen and I talked about the history of love. When I asked her happily how her current boyfriend treated her, she smiled shyly. My Sweetie said, "Love me, love my dog."

I asked her curiously when she got a dog. I don't know. She laughed, knowing that I misunderstood her, and quickly explained to me that she didn't have a dog at home. "Love me, love my dog" means "love me, love my dog". Oh! It turns out that many times, English sentences or idioms have different meanings, so you can't take them out of context, otherwise it will make people laugh!

forget-me-not

Forget-me-not is a kind of blue flower "forget-me-not" that grows near the water. In Germany, Italy and Britain, there are many writers of essays, poems and novels who use forget-me-not to describe lovesickness and infatuation. People think that as long as you take forget-me-not with you, lovers will keep themselves in mind and never forget them. Behind this blue flower, there is a romantic love story circulating in Europe and America!

The name comes from the German Vergissmeinnicht, which means "forget me". The name forget-me-not comes from a tragic love story.

Legend has it that a German knight and his lover were walking on the Danube. Walking on the road, I saw blue flowers blooming by the river. The knight bent over to pick flowers regardless of his life, only to stumble and fall into the rapids.

The knight who knew that he could not be saved said, "Don't forget me!" " Then he threw the blue transparent flowers at his lover and disappeared into the water. From then on, the knight's lover wore blue flowers in her hair day and night to show her eternal loyalty to her lover. And that blue transparent flower is also called "forget me", and its flower language is "forget me" and "true love".

In addition, don't forget that I am also the state flower of Alaska, but because its leaves are shaped like mouse ears, the locals also call it mouse ears, so the name is not as good as forget me!

Walking on eggs

We often use "walking on thin ice" to describe a person who is very cautious in doing things, walking on thin ice. A similar expression in English is walking on an egg, or stepping on an egg, which means walking very carefully. In the United States, there is a phrase "walk Spanish", which means that children walk on tiptoe with collars. The extended meaning of this word was changed to "walk carefully", but now it usually refers to dismissal, recall and dismissal. When a person is fired by the company, he is fired by the company.

Walking on eggs is reminiscent of walking lightly. American slang uses walk soft to express calm words and deeds: he walks much softer than before. But walk soft is different from walksoft. It is an idiom from the Bible. The old English translation of chapter 2 1 section 27 of 1 Kings: He (Ahab) tore his clothes ... and became soft, meaning "go away in frustration".

Breakfast time

It is said that continental breakfast is the antonym of English breakfast. English breakfast is generally based on cereal and bacon, while continental breakfast is only bread and coffee (or black tea).

My friend M joined a tour group to travel to the United States many years ago, and the breakfast was very rich: they provided a hearty breakfast of pancakes, eggs and fruits. He thought that Americans ate more breakfast. Later, he visited American friends' homes and saw that they usually ate breakfast in the kitchen. There is a small table in the kitchen, put in the corner, called breakfast corner, which is used for breakfast. The standard American breakfast is: juice, toast, eggs, milk or coffee or tea. Bread is toast, or rolls. In short, it's quite simple.

Some people say that Americans don't pay much attention to eating, and breakfast is more casual. It is said that most people will go through a critical period after marriage, which is called "breakfast time". Both husband and wife are in a bad mood, like when they sit down for breakfast. However, after breakfast, everyone is in a good mood, and if they understand each other, they will live in peace. Western proverbs include: sing before breakfast and cry before night, also called: cry before breakfast and sing before night. Singing means joy, crying means sadness and impermanence of life.

Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse means Mickey Mouse. Yes, everyone knows the meaning of "Mickey Mouse", but the meaning of "Mickey Mouse" is not just "Mickey Mouse".

People use "Mickey Mouse" in everyday language to refer to timid and stupid people. For example, "There are many Mickey Mouse in office all over the country, from both parties and governments at all levels." (Businessweek July 27th 1974) In Australia, Mickey Mouse is used to refer to cheap or untrustworthy products. In American English and British English, Mickey Mouse is usually an adjective to describe boring or trivial activities. For example, the main reason why "they don't have enough people (police)" on the highway is that they have made too many other Mickey Mouse (Kansas City Star 1 8 1974). In addition, students use this word to describe those courses or assignments that are easy to complete: "Courses … are authorized to take specially customized Mickey Mouse courses so as not to protect their infrared sports support." ng。 "(rapoport and Kershbaum, is the library on fire? 1969)

"Mickey Mouse" is also used in the military field, such as the "Mickey Mouse Ear" radio-the bombing device on the fighter plane during the Vietnam War and World War II; During the Second World War, there was also an educational film called Mickey Mouse, such as "A two-minute Mickey Mouse will be added, and a trailer of clinical scenes showing diseased organs in full color" (W. Stevens Gunner 89 1966, ref. To World War II).

At present, we often use the meaning of "small but not important", which is often derogatory. For example, "he claims to be the general manager, but his company is just a Mickey mouse that he runs in his own home." He claims to be the general manager, but his company is just a small business run in his own home. )

Mickey Mouse Poor Mickey Mouse! Maybe you will think that the meaning derived from such a popular classic cartoon image must be wonderful. But in fact, the word "Mickey Mouse" does not mean "sweet and lovely"; On the other hand, it means "timid, stupid, boring, boring, picky or impossible"

Miss, madam and lady

Miss, madam and lady are all appellations for ladies, so how to distinguish them and use different appellations correctly in different occasions?

Miss and Mrs are short for hostess. In medieval English, the word mistress has many meanings, some of which are still used today, such as hostess, goddess, female expert in a certain industry, female teacher, tutor and so on. Mistress generally refers to "a woman with certain professional knowledge and ability" and is also used as a polite address for unmarried and married women. At around 1600, the meaning of mistress gradually narrowed to the title of married woman.

Miss first appeared in the Diary of John Evelyn in 1645, when the word Miss meant "a concubine; ; A mistress, that is, a concubine, is a woman who is kept in captivity. About 20 years later, samuel pepys first used the first letter of the word Miss before the name of a girl or unmarried woman. About the same time, John Dryden first used miss as a title, especially for girls or unmarried women.

The antonym of mistress is master, which refers to the man in the family. /kloc-in the 6th century, the spelling of "master" evolved into "mister", and its abbreviation, Mr, only refers to men or gentlemen, and does not indicate their marital status.

It was not until19th century that Mr. and Mrs. were used as a pair of antonyms. It was from this period that Mrs. began to refer specifically to married women and has been used ever since.

Ms is the most puzzling of the three words Miss, Mrs and Ms, which first appeared in 1949 Mario Pei's The Story of Language. In word formation, Ms may be a mixture of Miss and Mrs, so in a sense, Ms can be used as both an unmarried woman and a married woman.

as lively as a grig

If "as happy as a lark" is easy to be accepted by everyone, because "lark" always makes a crisp and pleasant cry in the morning; If we say "happiness is as long as day", everyone can understand, because the days are long, everyone will naturally have more happy time; So, why is there such a thing as "contentment"? "What's the connection between clams and happiness?

/kloc-In the first half of the 9th century, American slang developed rapidly, and "happy as a clam at high tide" and "happy as a clam at high tide" were frequently used. There is a passage in Atlantic Monthly of 1860, "I'm sure I had a very happy last six years, and I didn't calculate it.