英语词汇wallflower的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

wallflower. The prosaic explanation for this word, describ- ing a girl who sits to the side at a dance or party because she is shy or without a partner, is simply that it originated with some poor girl who sat against the wall during a party. But the romantic story is nicer. This holds that such girls are named after the common wallflower of Europe (Cheiranthus cheiri), a sweet-scented, yellow spring flower that grows wild on walls and cliffs. Indeed, the English poet Robert Herrick (1591–1674) claimed that the flower itself is named after such a girl, his delightful derivation telling of a fair damsel who was long kept from her lover and finally tried to escape to him:

词汇	wallflower
词源	wallflower. The prosaic explanation for this word, describ- ing a girl who sits to the side at a dance or party because she is shy or without a partner, is simply that it originated with some poor girl who sat against the wall during a party. But the romantic story is nicer. This holds that such girls are named after the common wallflower of Europe (Cheiranthus cheiri), a sweet-scented, yellow spring flower that grows wild on walls and cliffs. Indeed, the English poet Robert Herrick (1591–1674) claimed that the flower itself is named after such a girl, his delightful derivation telling of a fair damsel who was long kept from her lover and finally tried to escape to him: Up she got upon a wall ’Tempting down to slide withal; But the silken twist untied, So she fell, and, bruised, she died. Love in pity of the deed, And her loving luckless speed Turned her to this plant we call Now the “Flower of the wall.”
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