词汇 | talk a blue streak |
词源 | talk a blue streak. This American expressions refers to light- ning bolts and has been traced back to about the middle of the 19th century, though it is probably much older. Similarly, a bolt from the blue, “something unexpected and startling,” draws the picture of a lightning bolt striking from a cloudless blue sky, without any warning at all. Blue streak refers to a blue streak of lightning flashing through the sky and was used to describe the rapidity of horses and coaches that “left blue streaks behind them” before it became part of the expression talk a blue streak, “to talk rapidly and interminably, to talk someone’s ear off.” |
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