英语词汇blarney的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

blarney. Built by Cormac McCarthy in 1446 and named for a nearby village only a few miles north of Cork, Ireland, Blarney Castle was put under siege by the British in 1602. The story goes that McCarthy Mor, descendant of its builder, refused to surrender the fortress to Queen Elizabeth’s Lord President of Munster, Sir George Carew. All Carew got from McCarthy for months were promises that he would eventually surrender. This smooth talk became a joking matter, making Carew the laugh- ingstock of Elizabeth’s ministers and blarney a byword for ca- jolery, flattering or wheedling talk. There is today, about 20 feet from the top of the castle wall, a stone inscribed “Cormac Mc- Carthy fortis me fieri fecit, a.d. 1446,” which may have been set there to commemorate the verbal defeat of the English by the Irish. This triangular stone is difficult to reach and the legend grew in the 17th century that if you could scale the wall and kiss the blarney stone you would be blessed with all the elo- quent persuasive powers of McCarthy Mor, that is, you’d be able to lie with a straight face. The blarney stone that people kiss today is a bit of blarney itself—a substitute provided to make things easier for tourists.

词汇	blarney
词源	blarney. Built by Cormac McCarthy in 1446 and named for a nearby village only a few miles north of Cork, Ireland, Blarney Castle was put under siege by the British in 1602. The story goes that McCarthy Mor, descendant of its builder, refused to surrender the fortress to Queen Elizabeth’s Lord President of Munster, Sir George Carew. All Carew got from McCarthy for months were promises that he would eventually surrender. This smooth talk became a joking matter, making Carew the laugh- ingstock of Elizabeth’s ministers and blarney a byword for ca- jolery, flattering or wheedling talk. There is today, about 20 feet from the top of the castle wall, a stone inscribed “Cormac Mc- Carthy fortis me fieri fecit, a.d. 1446,” which may have been set there to commemorate the verbal defeat of the English by the Irish. This triangular stone is difficult to reach and the legend grew in the 17th century that if you could scale the wall and kiss the blarney stone you would be blessed with all the elo- quent persuasive powers of McCarthy Mor, that is, you’d be able to lie with a straight face. The blarney stone that people kiss today is a bit of blarney itself—a substitute provided to make things easier for tourists.
随便看	zoysia grass z-s zulu zwieback zwinglian zyzzyva zzz ¡ay chihuahua £ can’t abide one can’t cut hack it can’t cut the mustard drop-dead beautiful good-time girl à la comanche à votre santé ça ira éminence grise ÷ division sign ‘shit’ said the queen ’roo ’s ’tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all ♀ female and ♂ male ✓ checkmark