英语词汇i smell a rat的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

I smell a rat. No one can say with irrefragable certainty how this expression originated, but the allusion may be to a cat smelling a rat while being unable to see it. Terriers and other rat-hunting dogs could also be the inspiration. The expression dates back to about 1780, but long before that to smell was used figuratively for “to suspect or discern intuitively,” as when Shakespeare writes “Do you smell a fault?” in King Lear. St. Hi- larion, the Syrian hermit who died about 371, could allegedly tell a person’s vices or virtues simply by smelling his person or clothing. Some people really have been able to smell a rat. One legendary underground worker for the New York City Transit Authority was renowned for smelling out dead rats, the odor of which has ruined many a business. John “Smelly” Kelly, also known as “Sniffy,” patrolled the New York City subway system for years, his uncanny sense of smell enabling him to detect everything from gas leaks to the decomposing corpses of poi- soned rats that crawled into the walls of stores adjoining the subway. Smelly Kelly was one of those rare people who could say with certainty, “I smell a rat.”

词汇	i smell a rat
词源	I smell a rat. No one can say with irrefragable certainty how this expression originated, but the allusion may be to a cat smelling a rat while being unable to see it. Terriers and other rat-hunting dogs could also be the inspiration. The expression dates back to about 1780, but long before that to smell was used figuratively for “to suspect or discern intuitively,” as when Shakespeare writes “Do you smell a fault?” in King Lear. St. Hi- larion, the Syrian hermit who died about 371, could allegedly tell a person’s vices or virtues simply by smelling his person or clothing. Some people really have been able to smell a rat. One legendary underground worker for the New York City Transit Authority was renowned for smelling out dead rats, the odor of which has ruined many a business. John “Smelly” Kelly, also known as “Sniffy,” patrolled the New York City subway system for years, his uncanny sense of smell enabling him to detect everything from gas leaks to the decomposing corpses of poi- soned rats that crawled into the walls of stores adjoining the subway. Smelly Kelly was one of those rare people who could say with certainty, “I smell a rat.”
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