词汇 | grandfather clock |
词源 | grandfather clock. A pendulum floor clock with a case as tall as or taller than a person. This is possibly the only English word that came into the language from a song: American song- writer Henry Clay Work’s “Grandfather’s Clock,” written in 1875. Work’s song became so popular that people began calling 0all such clocks grandfather’s clocks, grandfather clocks, and grandfathers. The first stanza of the song goes: My grandfather’s clock was too large for the shelf, So it stood ninety years on the floor; It was taller by half than the old man himself, Though it weighed not a pennyweight more. It was bought on the morn of the day he was born And was always his treasure and pride. But it stopped short—never to go again— When the old man died. |
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