在语言应用漫长过程里，很多英文俚语早已丢失了它原本指代的意思，引申出了其它的含义。
你知道吗？一些看上去非常正面的表达，其实却有着令人惊愕的起源故事。
和学习成语典故一样，了解俚语的起源能帮助我们更好地理解和运用。今天我们就来看看一些俚语背后的故事。
Paint the town red
- To go out into a city or town and have an enjoyable time 大肆狂欢
- After our exams finished, we all decided to paint the town red.考试结束了，我们要大肆狂欢。
- Infamous: 声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的
- Vandalize: 肆意毁坏，摧残
- Raucous festivities：喧闹的庆祝活动
Around 1837, the infamous troublemaker Marquis de Waterford and his accomplices spent an evening vandalizing the English town Melton Mowbray. Some of the night‘s raucous festivities included literally painting various buildings——even a tollbooth——a lovely (andobvious) shade of red.
这个俚语正如它的字面意思一样，真的把城市刷成了红色。当然，现在人们在使用时，并不是指故事中的闹事者那样为所欲为，作恶多端，而是指辛劳过后“好好欢乐一下，没有什么顾忌”，例如赢得比赛胜利，结束了艰苦的工作。
Pulling a leg
- Joking or fooling with someone. 开玩笑，捉弄某人
- Don‘t believe him. He‘s just pulling your leg. 别相信他，他只是在开你玩笑。
- Sinister: 阴险的，凶险的
- Entrap: 使陷入圈套，坑害
Origin: To pull someone’s leg had much more sinister overtones when it first came in use. It was originally a method usedby thieves to entrap their pedestrians and subsequently rob them. One thief would be assigned ‘tripper up’ duty, and would use different instruments to knock the person to the ground. Luckily, these days the saying is much more friendlier, though being on the end of a joke might not always be fun.
大家都知道“pull a leg”是开玩笑的意思，但这个俚语的起源可没有那么轻松有趣。它原本是强盗抢劫路人的第一步：拉住他的腿，将其放倒在地，以便掠夺财物。
Bite the bullet
- To do or accept something unpleasant, often after a period of hesitation. 咬紧牙关做某事
- I don‘t actually enjoy cleaning, but I bite the bullet.我不喜欢打扫，但我还是忍着做。
- Chomp down on: 咬住
- Turmoil：混乱，动乱
- Anesthesia:麻药
“Bite the bullet” boasts aliteral, straightforward history. As with its later metaphorical use,chomping down on ammunition meant one needed to face down his or her physical turmoil. Prior to the invention of anesthesia, the only respite surgeons could offer wasa bit of liquor (usually whisky) and a lead bullet or stick to chew.
对于现代人来说，吃完饭去洗碗或许是件大难事，花积蓄买一辆好车或许需要下定一番决心。但在麻醉药出现之前，手术病人忍受巨大的疼痛也只能咬紧牙关。尤其是在战火纷飞的年代，医生只好让受伤的士兵们咬住子弹，缓解疼痛。久而久之，这个俚语就用来表示鼓起勇气，硬着头皮做为难的事。
Basket case
- One that is in a completely hopeless or useless condition 完全没有希望的，无用的
- if things don‘t get better in the next two months we‘ll be a basket case and have to go out of business.如果未来两个月还没有起色，我们就彻底没有希望，只能倒闭了。
- Coin: 铸造，创造
- Bulletin: 公告
Origin: According to undetermined reports,WW1 soldiers who had lost all their limbs were carried around in baskets. The actual term, ‘basket case’, however was coined by the US military – in denial of this practice – after WW1. In 1919, a bulletin was issued by the U.S.Command on Public Information, making use of the phrase:
“The Surgeon General of the Army … denies …that there is any foundation for the stories that have been circulated … of the existence of ‘basket cases’ in our hospitals.”
相传在第一次世界大战中，如果士兵在战场上失去了四肢，就会被医护人员放进篮子里拖拽。但这个俚语表达却是由官方在否认这个谣言的公告里被创造出来的。之后，渐渐地被人们广泛使用，表示某事某人完全没有了希望。
Source:
- https://www.toppr.com/bytes/interesting-stories-behind-popular-english-idiomsphrases/
- http://www.bachelorsdegree.org/2011/01/30/30-common-english-idioms-and-the-history-behind-them/
- https://allthatsinteresting.com/origins-common-english-idioms
