| 词汇 | greased lightning |
| 词源 | greased lightning. Lightning is fast enough, striking before it can be heard, but greased lightning! Why, this is the kind of American exaggeration for emphasis that British grammarians sneered about all through the 19th century. Americans surely are a hyperbolic people, but the trouble here is that like greased lightning, “faster than anything,” is a British expression, despite some disclaimers. At least it first appeared in the Boston, Lin- coln, and Louth Herald of January 15, 1833. The hyperbole is of course not meant to be taken seriously. No more than the eve- ryday expressions as old as the hills, a million thanks, I haven’t seen you for ages, or even Shakespeare’s famous poetic device in Macbeth: No; this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red. |
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