英语词汇merry andrew的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

Merry Andrew. Henry VIII’s personal physician, Dr. Andrew Borde or Boorde (ca. 1490–1549), has been regarded by some as the original Merry Andrew, at least since Thomas Hearne designated him so in the preface to his Benedictine Abbas Petroburgensis in 1735. Borde did have a reputation for a sala- cious wit and a bedside manner that mixed facetiousness with healing, but to call the eccentric doctor a buffoon or clown would be stretching the evidence too far. He did not author a contemporary joke book, as is sometimes alleged, but he was a man known for his vast learning as well as his reputation for enjoying a good joke. The Oxford English Dictionary notes Hearne’s statement, and like most authorities dismisses it, claiming that the author based his identification on little evidence or even intrinsic probability. The expression did arise in Borde’s time, but probably from the generic name for men servants or serving men, “Andrew” being commonly bestowed on servants in those days. The first Merry Andrew was most likely such a servant, the cognomen later being applied to any conjurer’s assistant who engaged in buffoonery to help make the magician’s hands quicker than the eye.

词汇	merry andrew
词源	Merry Andrew. Henry VIII’s personal physician, Dr. Andrew Borde or Boorde (ca. 1490–1549), has been regarded by some as the original Merry Andrew, at least since Thomas Hearne designated him so in the preface to his Benedictine Abbas Petroburgensis in 1735. Borde did have a reputation for a sala- cious wit and a bedside manner that mixed facetiousness with healing, but to call the eccentric doctor a buffoon or clown would be stretching the evidence too far. He did not author a contemporary joke book, as is sometimes alleged, but he was a man known for his vast learning as well as his reputation for enjoying a good joke. The Oxford English Dictionary notes Hearne’s statement, and like most authorities dismisses it, claiming that the author based his identification on little evidence or even intrinsic probability. The expression did arise in Borde’s time, but probably from the generic name for men servants or serving men, “Andrew” being commonly bestowed on servants in those days. The first Merry Andrew was most likely such a servant, the cognomen later being applied to any conjurer’s assistant who engaged in buffoonery to help make the magician’s hands quicker than the eye.
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