英语词汇not worth a bean的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

not worth a bean. One of the oldest expressions in English, recorded as early as the 13th century and colloquial since at least 1400. Beans have little commercial value compared to other foods because they are so easy to grow and prolific, even the garden “hill of beans” in the American version of the En- glish expression. The hill in “not worth a hill of beans” was a common term a century ago when the saying was born. It means not an actual hill but a group of bean plants planted close together in a circle. Because most people plant beans in straight rows now and the meaning of hills is unclear to many, the phrase used today is usually not worth a row of beans.

词汇	not worth a bean
词源	not worth a bean. One of the oldest expressions in English, recorded as early as the 13th century and colloquial since at least 1400. Beans have little commercial value compared to other foods because they are so easy to grow and prolific, even the garden “hill of beans” in the American version of the En- glish expression. The hill in “not worth a hill of beans” was a common term a century ago when the saying was born. It means not an actual hill but a group of bean plants planted close together in a circle. Because most people plant beans in straight rows now and the meaning of hills is unclear to many, the phrase used today is usually not worth a row of beans.
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