| 词汇 | full of beans etc |
| 词源 | full of beans, etc. The phrase is used like full of baloney, full of soup, and worse, but it usually means someone who is full of energy, high-spirited, lively—sometimes in a foolish or silly way. Some say it is a horsey expression, like full of oats, going back to the days when horses were fed “horse beans” raised for fodder. The saying, however, is a British one from about 1870 and may derive from an earlier phrase, full of bread. Beans, a high-protein food, certainly should make one lively; in fact, they have long been regarded as an aphrodisiac. As an old En- glish ballad, “The Love Bean,” put it: My love hung limp beneath the leaf (O bitter, bitter shame!) My heavy heart was full of grief Until my lady came. She brought a tasty dish to me, (O swollen pod and springing seed!) My love sprang out right eagerly To serve me in my need. The gas that beans inspire also has something to do with the expression; as the word prunes, substituted in the phrase for beans some seventy years later, would indicate, both beans and prunes having a laxative effect. In fact, beans were primarily regarded as an aphrodisiac by the ancients because the eructa- tions they caused were thought to produce prodigious erec- tions. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture has recently developed a “gas-less variety,” “a clean bean” seed guaranteed not to cause social distress at the dinner table or elsewhere. So bean eaters can now be as full of beans as ever and much less obnoxious, though maybe not as sexy. |
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