英语词汇boondoggles的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

boondoggles. One dictionary defines boondoggles as: “Use- less, wasteful tasks, ‘make-work’ projects that are often per- formed by recipients of a government dole.” The word was employed in 1929 by Scoutmaster Robert Link of Rochester, New York, who applied it to the braided leather lanyards made and worn around the neck as a decoration by Boy Scouts. Un- der the New Deal during the Great Depression, the term was transferred to the relief work for the unemployed that some people, not out of work themselves, thought was as useless as making lanyards, and soon boondoggling meant to do any work of no practical value merely to keep or look busy. Before Scoutmaster Link applied boondoggle to lanyards it had been a word for a belt, knife sheath, or other product of simple manu- al skill, and in Scottish dialect it means a marble that you get as a gift, without winning it. The yarn about boondoggle being suggested by Daniel Boone idly whittling sticks to throw to his dog does convey the sense of the word, but is just another spu- rious tale.

词汇	boondoggles
词源	boondoggles. One dictionary defines boondoggles as: “Use- less, wasteful tasks, ‘make-work’ projects that are often per- formed by recipients of a government dole.” The word was employed in 1929 by Scoutmaster Robert Link of Rochester, New York, who applied it to the braided leather lanyards made and worn around the neck as a decoration by Boy Scouts. Un- der the New Deal during the Great Depression, the term was transferred to the relief work for the unemployed that some people, not out of work themselves, thought was as useless as making lanyards, and soon boondoggling meant to do any work of no practical value merely to keep or look busy. Before Scoutmaster Link applied boondoggle to lanyards it had been a word for a belt, knife sheath, or other product of simple manu- al skill, and in Scottish dialect it means a marble that you get as a gift, without winning it. The yarn about boondoggle being suggested by Daniel Boone idly whittling sticks to throw to his dog does convey the sense of the word, but is just another spu- rious tale.
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