英语词汇rhubarb的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

rhubarb. Speculation has been rife for years about how the slang term rhubarb, “a heated argument,” arose from the name of a popular vegetable. Since the word is often associated with baseball, many writers say it has its origins there. But probably the best explanation, advanced about 25 years ago by a veteran actor familiar with theatrical traditions, is that actors simulat- ing angry talk in crowd scenes for “the noise without” gathered backstage and “intoned the sonorous word ‘rhubarb.’ ” The actor-etymologist Alexander McQueen advised that the word produces such an effect “only if two or three work at it,” and claimed that this theatrical tradition went back to Shakespear- ean times, but the slang rhubarb for an argument arose only in the late 19th century. It therefore came to mean a “rumpus” or a “row” at about the time baseball was fast becoming America’s national pastime. It is easy to see how the stage term could have been applied to an argument on the diamond, especially a mass argument that involved both teams, though there is no solid proof of this. Rhubarb itself has an interesting derivation, tak- ing its name from the Latin rha barbarum. The Romans called it this because the plant was native to the river Rha (the Volga), a foreign, “barbarian” territory—the plant’s name, thus mean- ing “from the barbarian (foreign) Rha.” The first rhubarb plant- ed in America was sent to the great naturalist John Bartram from Siberia in 1770. Americans long called the fruit pieplant because it made such delicious pies, especially when combined with strawberries.

词汇	rhubarb
词源	rhubarb. Speculation has been rife for years about how the slang term rhubarb, “a heated argument,” arose from the name of a popular vegetable. Since the word is often associated with baseball, many writers say it has its origins there. But probably the best explanation, advanced about 25 years ago by a veteran actor familiar with theatrical traditions, is that actors simulat- ing angry talk in crowd scenes for “the noise without” gathered backstage and “intoned the sonorous word ‘rhubarb.’ ” The actor-etymologist Alexander McQueen advised that the word produces such an effect “only if two or three work at it,” and claimed that this theatrical tradition went back to Shakespear- ean times, but the slang rhubarb for an argument arose only in the late 19th century. It therefore came to mean a “rumpus” or a “row” at about the time baseball was fast becoming America’s national pastime. It is easy to see how the stage term could have been applied to an argument on the diamond, especially a mass argument that involved both teams, though there is no solid proof of this. Rhubarb itself has an interesting derivation, tak- ing its name from the Latin rha barbarum. The Romans called it this because the plant was native to the river Rha (the Volga), a foreign, “barbarian” territory—the plant’s name, thus mean- ing “from the barbarian (foreign) Rha.” The first rhubarb plant- ed in America was sent to the great naturalist John Bartram from Siberia in 1770. Americans long called the fruit pieplant because it made such delicious pies, especially when combined with strawberries.
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