英语词汇con的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

con; con game; con man. Just after the Civil War, one of the most common frauds in America was the sale of fake gold mine stock in the West. Sometimes gold would be salted in played-out “mines” to fool “marks,” but the swindlers who worked the scheme usually settled for a small score from a great number of investors and never bothered about tricking up a real mine. Investors were often reluctant to advance funds without examining the property, however, and the swindlers asked their victims to make a small investment in advance “just as a gesture of confidence,” deposits that they quickly abscond- ed with. The trick was soon dubbed the confidence game, and, in time, its fast-moving practitioners became known as con men. Reinforcing the word is the idea that victims of a con game are bamboozled into confidence that they’re going to make a killing. To con, in this sense, has nothing to do with the older English verb to con, to study or commit to memory, which derives from the Middle English cunnen, “to try.” Con games were practiced, of course, long before this word for them was coined. On the American continent, for example, Mayan swindlers painstakingly drilled small holes in cocoa beans, emptied out their precious powder and refilled them with dirt before selling them to Europeans.

词汇	con
词源	con; con game; con man. Just after the Civil War, one of the most common frauds in America was the sale of fake gold mine stock in the West. Sometimes gold would be salted in played-out “mines” to fool “marks,” but the swindlers who worked the scheme usually settled for a small score from a great number of investors and never bothered about tricking up a real mine. Investors were often reluctant to advance funds without examining the property, however, and the swindlers asked their victims to make a small investment in advance “just as a gesture of confidence,” deposits that they quickly abscond- ed with. The trick was soon dubbed the confidence game, and, in time, its fast-moving practitioners became known as con men. Reinforcing the word is the idea that victims of a con game are bamboozled into confidence that they’re going to make a killing. To con, in this sense, has nothing to do with the older English verb to con, to study or commit to memory, which derives from the Middle English cunnen, “to try.” Con games were practiced, of course, long before this word for them was coined. On the American continent, for example, Mayan swindlers painstakingly drilled small holes in cocoa beans, emptied out their precious powder and refilled them with dirt before selling them to Europeans.
随便看	mezuzah mho mi5 mi6 mia micah rood-s apple micawberish attitude michigan mickey finn mickey mouse mickey mouse names mickey mouse rules microcosm microscope midas midas touch middle america middle class middle finger middle of the road middle passage middling midget midnight ride of paul revere midshipman fish midsummer dream game