Egg him on 与“鸡蛋”有关么
看到“egg him on”,您是不是很迷惑?给他鸡蛋?那是什么意思?事实上,这一短语和朝人身上扔鸡蛋根本不搭边儿。Egg 在英文字典中被解释为:the hard-shelled spheroidal reproductive body produced by females of animals such as birds, reptiles, fish, etc especially that of a domestic hen. 即是指鸟类、爬行动物、昆虫等产的卵、蛋;尤指鸡蛋。
别着急,egg 还可以做动词用,常见的形式为egg somebody on (to do something),意思是 to incite, urge or strongly encourage sb to do sth 中文的意思就是“怂恿或鼓动某人作某事”。例如: \"He wouldn't have thrown that stone if the other boys hadn't egged him on. \" (要不是那些男孩子怂恿他,他不会扔那块石头。)
再例如: I didn’t want to do it but Tom kept egging me on. (我本不想做那件事, 但汤姆一直怂恿我。)
这个用法借自古代斯堪的纳维亚语,和现代英语的edge一词同源。从语义的角度来说,两者的联系似乎并不明显。但是在英文中,edge 本身也能这么用。 “to give an edge to” 即为 “to encourage”.
姗姗编辑. 长见识了~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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