英语词汇kangaroo court的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

kangaroo court. While this expression may have originated in Australia, it was first recorded in America during the Cali- fornia gold rush. Perhaps Australian “49ers” did bring it with them to the gold fields. According to this story, the source for the term is kangaroos in Australia’s back country, who when out of spear range sat staring dumbly at men for long periods of time before leaping off for the horizon; their staring was thought to be similar to the dumb stares of jurors sitting on a mock jury, and their leaping away suggesting the quick deci- sions of such an extralegal court. But there are no quotations supporting the use of kangaroo court in Australia at any time. The expression could have been coined in America, in fact, based on the several uses of the word kangaroo in England for anything unusual or eccentric. Another guess is that Americans familiar with the kangaroo’s jumping habits, or Australians here with gold fever, invented kangaroo court as a humorous term for courts that tried “claim-jumpers,” miners who seized the mining claims of others.

词汇	kangaroo court
词源	kangaroo court. While this expression may have originated in Australia, it was first recorded in America during the Cali- fornia gold rush. Perhaps Australian “49ers” did bring it with them to the gold fields. According to this story, the source for the term is kangaroos in Australia’s back country, who when out of spear range sat staring dumbly at men for long periods of time before leaping off for the horizon; their staring was thought to be similar to the dumb stares of jurors sitting on a mock jury, and their leaping away suggesting the quick deci- sions of such an extralegal court. But there are no quotations supporting the use of kangaroo court in Australia at any time. The expression could have been coined in America, in fact, based on the several uses of the word kangaroo in England for anything unusual or eccentric. Another guess is that Americans familiar with the kangaroo’s jumping habits, or Australians here with gold fever, invented kangaroo court as a humorous term for courts that tried “claim-jumpers,” miners who seized the mining claims of others.
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