English 版 (精华区)
发信人: watergod (共工), 信区: English
标 题: A.Word.A.Day--white elephant(转载)
发信站: 哈工大紫丁香 (2000年12月10日11:34:43 星期天), 转信
【 以下文字转载自 watergod 的信箱 】
【 原文由 Wordsmith 所发表 】
white elephant (hwyt EL-uh-fent) noun
1. A possession unwanted by the owner but difficult to dispose of.
2. A possession entailing great expense out of proportion to its
usefulness or value to the owner.
3. An abnormally whitish or pale elephant, usually found in Thailand;
an albino elephant.
[From the perhaps apocryphal tale that the King of Siam would award a
disagreeable courtier a white elephant, the upkeep of which would ruin the
courtier.]
"Now an orchestra opening a new hall has reason to pray, solemnly and at
length, that it will not be saddled with a white elephant with mediocre
acoustics."
Allan Kozinn, A Venerable Concert Hall That's the Belle of the Ball,
The New York Times, Sep 30, 2000.
This week's theme: animal words that are used figuratively.
............................................................................
It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be
reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.
-Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)
Subscribe: http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscribe.html
Unsubscribe: http://wordsmith.org/awad/unsubscribe.html
Change address: http://wordsmith.org/awad/address-change.html
Gift subscription: http://wordsmith.org/awad/gift.html
Pronunciation:
http://wordsmith.org/words/white_elephant.wav
http://wordsmith.org/words/white_elephant.ram
--
※ 转载:.哈工大紫丁香 bbs.hit.edu.cn.[FROM: 202.118.226.124]
Powered by KBS BBS 2.0 (http://dev.kcn.cn)
页面执行时间:1.953毫秒