英语词汇spinach的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

spinach. Popeye did so much for this vegetable with the young set that spinach growers in one Texas town erected a large statue to him. Some authorities claim spinach derives from the Latin hispanicus olus, “the Spanish herb.” The word does come to us from Spain, but probably not directly. Appar ently the Persian and Arabian isfanakh became the Old Spanish espinaca, which eventually changed into the Middle French es- pinache, which resulted in our word spinach. At any rate, the Arabs did introduce the vegetable into Spain, and then it spread to the rest of Europe. Dr. Johnson, for one, enjoyed it, accord ing to Boswell. Napoleon did almost as much for spinach’s fame as Popeye by decorating the golden epaulettes of his colonels with what looked like gold spinach leaves and were thus re ferred to as spinach—a term that lingers to this day. The phrase gammon and spinach, meaning “nonsense,” or “humbug,” is not as familiar today as it was in Dickens’s time, when he wrote in David Copperfield, “What a world of gammon and spinnage it is; though, ain’t it!” The phrase, most likely an elaboration of the slang word gammon, which meant “nonsense” or “ridicu lous story,” is probably patterned on the older phrase “gammon and patter,” the language of London underworld thieves. The nonsense part of it was possibly reinforced by the old nursery rhyme “A Frog He Would A-Wooing Go” (1600), which was heard by millions: “With a rowley powley gammon and spin ach / Heigh ho! says Anthony Rowley.” E. B. White wrote the caption that became the catchphrase “I say it’s spinach, and I say the hell with it” for the Carl Rose cartoon that appeared in the December 8, 1928, issue of The New Yorker. It shows a spoiled little girl who rejects her indulgent mother’s offer of broccoli with words that have come to mean, “When I’m in dulging my prejudices I don’t want to be confused with facts.” The phrase’s abbreviated form, spinach, means “baloney,” “ma larkey,” “bull.” In 1991 President George Bush joined the ranks of broccoliphobes when he told the press that he hates the stuff. President Clinton has gone on record that he likes it.

词汇	spinach
词源	spinach. Popeye did so much for this vegetable with the young set that spinach growers in one Texas town erected a large statue to him. Some authorities claim spinach derives from the Latin hispanicus olus, “the Spanish herb.” The word does come to us from Spain, but probably not directly. Appar ently the Persian and Arabian isfanakh became the Old Spanish espinaca, which eventually changed into the Middle French es- pinache, which resulted in our word spinach. At any rate, the Arabs did introduce the vegetable into Spain, and then it spread to the rest of Europe. Dr. Johnson, for one, enjoyed it, accord ing to Boswell. Napoleon did almost as much for spinach’s fame as Popeye by decorating the golden epaulettes of his colonels with what looked like gold spinach leaves and were thus re ferred to as spinach—a term that lingers to this day. The phrase gammon and spinach, meaning “nonsense,” or “humbug,” is not as familiar today as it was in Dickens’s time, when he wrote in David Copperfield, “What a world of gammon and spinnage it is; though, ain’t it!” The phrase, most likely an elaboration of the slang word gammon, which meant “nonsense” or “ridicu lous story,” is probably patterned on the older phrase “gammon and patter,” the language of London underworld thieves. The nonsense part of it was possibly reinforced by the old nursery rhyme “A Frog He Would A-Wooing Go” (1600), which was heard by millions: “With a rowley powley gammon and spin ach / Heigh ho! says Anthony Rowley.” E. B. White wrote the caption that became the catchphrase “I say it’s spinach, and I say the hell with it” for the Carl Rose cartoon that appeared in the December 8, 1928, issue of The New Yorker. It shows a spoiled little girl who rejects her indulgent mother’s offer of broccoli with words that have come to mean, “When I’m in dulging my prejudices I don’t want to be confused with facts.” The phrase’s abbreviated form, spinach, means “baloney,” “ma larkey,” “bull.” In 1991 President George Bush joined the ranks of broccoliphobes when he told the press that he hates the stuff. President Clinton has gone on record that he likes it.
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