英语词汇drug on the market的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

drug on the market. We use this expression for “something not in demand, something unsalable because the market is glutted or the woods are full of them.” But since the phrase’s first appearance in 1661 no one has figured out just what it means. What drug is referred to? Is it possibly items of trade like the tea and spices that were sometimes called drugs in the past, and, if so, when in early times were markets ever glutted with such rare commodities? Or is drug here just a pronuncia- tion of dreg in certain English dialects? Take your choice, but the theory that apparently has the most supporters claims that the drug here is from the French word drogue, meaning “rub- bish.” The word drug has been used in this sense, as when Rob- inson Crusoe, discovering coins in a wreck, cried out: “O Drug! what art thou good for?”

词汇	drug on the market
词源	drug on the market. We use this expression for “something not in demand, something unsalable because the market is glutted or the woods are full of them.” But since the phrase’s first appearance in 1661 no one has figured out just what it means. What drug is referred to? Is it possibly items of trade like the tea and spices that were sometimes called drugs in the past, and, if so, when in early times were markets ever glutted with such rare commodities? Or is drug here just a pronuncia- tion of dreg in certain English dialects? Take your choice, but the theory that apparently has the most supporters claims that the drug here is from the French word drogue, meaning “rub- bish.” The word drug has been used in this sense, as when Rob- inson Crusoe, discovering coins in a wreck, cried out: “O Drug! what art thou good for?”
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