英语词汇grin like a cheshire cat的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

grin like a Cheshire cat. The pseudonymous British satirist Peter Pindar (John Wolcot) first used this expression for a broad smile in the late 18th century, but Lewis Carroll popular- ized it in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)—the Chesh- ire cat in the story gradually faded from Alice’s view, its grin the last part of it to vanish. No satisfactory explanation of the allu- sion has been made. To grin like a Cheshire cat probably goes back much further than Pindar, and the source could be Chesh- ire cheeses that were at one time molded in the form of a cat— supposedly, the cat was grinning because the former palatine of Cheshire once had regal privileges in England, paying no taxes to the crown, etc. Another story relates the expression to the at- tempts of an ignorant sign painter to represent a lion rampant on the signs of many Cheshire inns—his lions supposedly looked more like grinning cats. The most unlikely yarn credits an eponymous forest warden of Cheshire named Caterling. In the reign of Richard III, it’s said, this Cheshire Caterling stamped out poaching, was responsible for over 100 poachers being hanged, and was present “grinning from ear to ear” at each of these executions. To grin like a Cheshire Catling became proverbial and was later shortened to grin like a Cheshire cat. Another fanciful story makes the same Catling the “cat” of the nursery rhyme “Hi Diddle Diddle, the Cat and the Fiddle.”

词汇	grin like a cheshire cat
词源	grin like a Cheshire cat. The pseudonymous British satirist Peter Pindar (John Wolcot) first used this expression for a broad smile in the late 18th century, but Lewis Carroll popular- ized it in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)—the Chesh- ire cat in the story gradually faded from Alice’s view, its grin the last part of it to vanish. No satisfactory explanation of the allu- sion has been made. To grin like a Cheshire cat probably goes back much further than Pindar, and the source could be Chesh- ire cheeses that were at one time molded in the form of a cat— supposedly, the cat was grinning because the former palatine of Cheshire once had regal privileges in England, paying no taxes to the crown, etc. Another story relates the expression to the at- tempts of an ignorant sign painter to represent a lion rampant on the signs of many Cheshire inns—his lions supposedly looked more like grinning cats. The most unlikely yarn credits an eponymous forest warden of Cheshire named Caterling. In the reign of Richard III, it’s said, this Cheshire Caterling stamped out poaching, was responsible for over 100 poachers being hanged, and was present “grinning from ear to ear” at each of these executions. To grin like a Cheshire Catling became proverbial and was later shortened to grin like a Cheshire cat. Another fanciful story makes the same Catling the “cat” of the nursery rhyme “Hi Diddle Diddle, the Cat and the Fiddle.”
随便看	jackrabbit jack robinson tinkers to evers to chance tin lizzie tin pan alley tinseltown tintinnabulation tiny thompson tip tippecanoe and tyler too tironian notes tit titania titanic titanium tit for tat titian titman titmuck titon the taster tittle ti yi yee ti yi yi yay tlc toady to arms