英语词汇can’t cut the mustard的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

can’t cut the mustard; can’t cut (hack) it. Whatever the ori- gins of can’t cut the mustard, and they are about as clear as mus- tard, the expression too old to cut the mustard is always applied to men today and conveys the idea of sexual inability. Can’t cut the mustard, however, means not to be able to handle any job for any reason, not just because of old age. Preceding the derivation of too old to cut the mustard by about a half a century, it derives from the expression to be the mustard. “Mustard” was slang for the “genuine article” or “main attraction” at the time. Perhaps someone cutting up to show that he was the mustard, or the greatest, was said to cut the mustard and the phrase later came to mean to be able to fill the bill or do the important or main job. In any case, O. Henry first used the words in this sense in his story “Heart of the West” (1907) when he wrote: “I looked around and found a proposition that exactly cut the mustard.” Today can’t cut the mustard is usually can’t cut it or can’t hack it. A recent variant on too old to cut the mustard is if you can’t cut the mustard, you can lick the jar.

词汇	can’t cut the mustard
词源	can’t cut the mustard; can’t cut (hack) it. Whatever the ori- gins of can’t cut the mustard, and they are about as clear as mus- tard, the expression too old to cut the mustard is always applied to men today and conveys the idea of sexual inability. Can’t cut the mustard, however, means not to be able to handle any job for any reason, not just because of old age. Preceding the derivation of too old to cut the mustard by about a half a century, it derives from the expression to be the mustard. “Mustard” was slang for the “genuine article” or “main attraction” at the time. Perhaps someone cutting up to show that he was the mustard, or the greatest, was said to cut the mustard and the phrase later came to mean to be able to fill the bill or do the important or main job. In any case, O. Henry first used the words in this sense in his story “Heart of the West” (1907) when he wrote: “I looked around and found a proposition that exactly cut the mustard.” Today can’t cut the mustard is usually can’t cut it or can’t hack it. A recent variant on too old to cut the mustard is if you can’t cut the mustard, you can lick the jar.
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