| 词源 |
without rhyme or reason. Francis Bacon wrote that Sir Tho- mas More, chancellor to Henry VIII, once told a friend who had versified a rather poor book he had written: “That’s better! It’s rhyme now, anyway. Before it was neither rhyme nor rea- son.” But More’s witty remark isn’t the basis for our expression meaning lacking in sense or any other justification, fit for nei- ther amusement nor instruction. Used in English since the early 16th century, the phrase is simply a translation of the medieval French saying, na rhyme ne raison. |