| 词源 |
chip off the old block. A son or daughter who strongly re- sembles his or her father or mother. The phrase, recorded in the 1600s, was originally British, but is now widely used and re- fers to the chip off a block of wood. A variation on the expres- sion is found in a remark of Eugene O’Neill’s father, James, who gave up a promising career for the financial security of playing only the leading role in The Count of Monte Cristo, which he played over 5,000 times. “A chip off the old block, eh?” his son Eugene said to him soon after he, too, had chosen the theater as a career. “Say, rather, a slice off the old ham,” James O’Neill replied. |