英语词汇washout的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

washout. Not all word derivations are cut and dried. Some- times the same expression arises in two or more places from dif- ferent sources, which may be the case with washout, both British and American slang for “a failure.” British usage of this term de- rives from military slang on the rifle range. After one squad had finished shooting at an iron target, the bullet marks in the bull’s-eye were painted over with black paint and the rest of the target whitewashed to prepare it for practice by the next squad. A shot completely off the target was called a washout, because it went off into the air, washed itself out, so to speak, and the mili- tary slang for a missed shot, common in about 1850, became slang for a failure some 50 years later during the Boer War. However, before this, probably as early as the 1860s, wash out was an American term for the washing away by heavy rains of part of a road or railway. Some writers claim that this term inde- pendently suggested American usage of the expression washout for a failure, but there are no recorded instances of the figurative usage here until the 1920s. By that time British and American forces had come in close contact during World War I. It seems likely that American soldiers borrowed the term for a failure from British slang without even realizing it, the washout of roads and railways being so familiar to them!

词汇	washout
词源	washout. Not all word derivations are cut and dried. Some- times the same expression arises in two or more places from dif- ferent sources, which may be the case with washout, both British and American slang for “a failure.” British usage of this term de- rives from military slang on the rifle range. After one squad had finished shooting at an iron target, the bullet marks in the bull’s-eye were painted over with black paint and the rest of the target whitewashed to prepare it for practice by the next squad. A shot completely off the target was called a washout, because it went off into the air, washed itself out, so to speak, and the mili- tary slang for a missed shot, common in about 1850, became slang for a failure some 50 years later during the Boer War. However, before this, probably as early as the 1860s, wash out was an American term for the washing away by heavy rains of part of a road or railway. Some writers claim that this term inde- pendently suggested American usage of the expression washout for a failure, but there are no recorded instances of the figurative usage here until the 1920s. By that time British and American forces had come in close contact during World War I. It seems likely that American soldiers borrowed the term for a failure from British slang without even realizing it, the washout of roads and railways being so familiar to them!
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