英语词汇handsome is as handsome does的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

handsome is as handsome does. Perhaps this is an old prov- erb that Chaucer suggested in “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” part of The Canterbury Tales (ca. 1387). There Chaucer wrote: “. . . he is gentil that dooth gentil dedis [deeds].” Anyway, some four cen- turies later, in The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), Oliver Goldsmith first used the expression in close to its modern form: “She would answer, ‘They are as heaven made them—handsome enough, if they be good enough; for handsome is that hand- some does.’ ” By the early 20th century the phrase had become handsome is as handsome does in American English and was often used as a motto under pictures of male graduates in col- lege yearbooks. The words aren’t often heard today and when they are, they are always applied to men. Originally, the expres- sion was said of both men and women. The cynical Frances Grose, for example, wrote in A Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1796) that it was “A proverb cited by ugly women.” A recent variation on the saying is the famous line from the film Forest Gump (1994), “Stupid is as stupid does.”

词汇	handsome is as handsome does
词源	handsome is as handsome does. Perhaps this is an old prov- erb that Chaucer suggested in “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” part of The Canterbury Tales (ca. 1387). There Chaucer wrote: “. . . he is gentil that dooth gentil dedis [deeds].” Anyway, some four cen- turies later, in The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), Oliver Goldsmith first used the expression in close to its modern form: “She would answer, ‘They are as heaven made them—handsome enough, if they be good enough; for handsome is that hand- some does.’ ” By the early 20th century the phrase had become handsome is as handsome does in American English and was often used as a motto under pictures of male graduates in col- lege yearbooks. The words aren’t often heard today and when they are, they are always applied to men. Originally, the expres- sion was said of both men and women. The cynical Frances Grose, for example, wrote in A Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1796) that it was “A proverb cited by ugly women.” A recent variation on the saying is the famous line from the film Forest Gump (1994), “Stupid is as stupid does.”
随便看	don’t look now don’t make two bites of a cherry don’t play games with me don’t poke one-s nose into it don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today don’t say it if you can grunt it don’t sell the steak sell the sizzle don’t stick your neck out don’t take any wooden nickels don’t that take the rag off the bush don’t want to pick up that snake now don’t wash your dirty linen in public don’t write it if you can say it doodlebug doo-doo doofus doolally dooley doolittle do’d it doorbuster doornail doo-wop dope dopey doppelganger