英语词汇too many irons in the fire的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

too many irons in the fire. “They that have many irons in the fires, some must burne,” Captain John Smith wrote in The Gen- eral Historie of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles (1624), and almost a century before another writer warned, “Put no more so many yrons in the fyre at ones.” Then there is the old Scottish proverb “Many Irons in the Fire, some must cool.” All of these admonitions illustrate the meaning of the phrase: to be engaged in more activities than one can manage at one time, to bite off more than you can chew. What is alluded to is another matter. Blacksmiths might be the source; no doubt some blacksmiths weren’t skilled enough to handle many pieces of steel in the forge and work over them in rapid order. But the “cool” in the Scottish proverb suggests that old laundry flati- rons, which had to be heated in hot coals, may have been the source. Leave too many laundry irons in the fire at once and those at the edge of the fire might not be hot enough to use.

词汇	too many irons in the fire
词源	too many irons in the fire. “They that have many irons in the fires, some must burne,” Captain John Smith wrote in The Gen- eral Historie of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles (1624), and almost a century before another writer warned, “Put no more so many yrons in the fyre at ones.” Then there is the old Scottish proverb “Many Irons in the Fire, some must cool.” All of these admonitions illustrate the meaning of the phrase: to be engaged in more activities than one can manage at one time, to bite off more than you can chew. What is alluded to is another matter. Blacksmiths might be the source; no doubt some blacksmiths weren’t skilled enough to handle many pieces of steel in the forge and work over them in rapid order. But the “cool” in the Scottish proverb suggests that old laundry flati- rons, which had to be heated in hot coals, may have been the source. Leave too many laundry irons in the fire at once and those at the edge of the fire might not be hot enough to use.
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