2023年11月19日 星期日

flummox, gravel, gavel, macho, to "man up", Go Under the Gavel, Charles Dickens' 1837 novel The Pickwick Papers



In 1876 Sigmund Freud dissected 400 eels looking for testicles. He was flummoxed—there were none. To this day, the eel's mating habits remain a scientific mystery



Mr Trump is unhappy with remarks made by Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister. What exactly he is unhappy with has flummoxed Canadian spokespeople

ECONOMIST.COM

Donald Trump lobs a grenade from afar into the G7
The risks of a trade war were already high. This will not help


Times Literary Supplement

‘Gold under gravel, gone to earth, / as useless to men as it ever was’ – by Seamus Heaney

As Seamus Heaney tells us in Stepping Stones: interviews with Seamus Heaney (2008), he was first asked for a translation of Beowulf by the editors of the Norton Anthology of English Literature in the mid-1980s. Although he…
THE-TLS.CO.UK


China’s leaders are undoubtedly flummoxed by Trump.

Molenbeek has been known as a hotspot for IS activity ever since the Paris bombings. Yet security forces failed to penetrate its jihadist networks


The gavel never stood a chance against former Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Pitts.
WASHINGTONPOST.COM

Give the Ref a Gavel

By ELDON L. HAM
The real obstacle to prosecuting excessive violence in sports may be our culture's macho conception of athletes, who are expected to "man up" in the face of threats to their safety.



Everyone here is flummoxed about why the president is in such a fine mood.

Chislehurst (pronounced /ˈtʃɪzəlhɜrst/) is a suburban settlement in south east London, England and an electoral ward of the London Borough of Bromley.
Etymology
The name "Chislehurst" is derived from the Saxon words "cisel" which means gravel and "hyrst" which means wooded hill.

Mansions Go Under the Gavel 
By GERALDINE FABRIKANT
With the real estate market in the doldrums, many owners of multimillion-dollar homes are being pushed by creditors or courts to use auctions.


Taiwan gravel shippers say China is killing their business
eTaiwan News - Taiwan
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – More than a hundred gravel shippers called on the government Monday to persuade China to lift a ban on their business despite direct ...





gravel
noun [U]
small rounded stones, often mixed with sand:
a gravel path


gav·el1 (găv'əl)砂石
n.
  1. A small mallet used by a presiding officer or an auctioneer to signal for attention or order or to mark the conclusion of a transaction.
  2. A maul used by masons in fitting stones.
tr.v.-eled also -elled-el·ing -el·ling-els -els.
To bring about or compel by using a gavel: “The chairman . . . tries to gavel the demonstration to an end” (New Yorker).
[Origin unknown.]


gravel 
noun [U]
small rounded stones, often mixed with sand:
a gravel path

gravelled, US USUALLY graveled

gravelly
adjective
gravelly soil

gavel
(găv'əl) pronunciation
n.
  1. A small mallet used by a presiding officer or an auctioneer to signal for attention or order or to mark the conclusion of a transaction.
  2. A maul used by masons in fitting stones.
tr.v., -eled, also -elled, -el·ing, -el·ling, -els, -els.
To bring about or compel by using a gavel: "The chairman . . . tries to gavel the demonstration to an end" (New Yorker).

[Origin unknown.]

gav·el2 (găv'əl) pronunciation
n.
Tribute or rent in ancient and medieval England.

[Middle English, from Old English gafol.]


flummox
verb [T] INFORMAL
to confuse someone so much that they do not know what to do:
I have to say that last question flummoxed me.Meaning #1: be a mystery or bewildering to


flummoxed
adjective
INFORMAL

He looked completely flummoxed.


flum·​mox | \ ˈflə-məks  -miks \
flummoxedflummoxingflummoxes

Definition of flummox


CONFUSEHe was flummoxed by the legal jargon.a happy innocent who had been flummoxed by wily city slickers— Andy Logan

Did You Know?

No one is completely sure where the word flummox comes from, but we do know that its first known use is found in Charles Dickens' 1837 novel The Pickwick Papers and that it had become quite common in both British and American English by the end of the 19th century. One theory expressed by some etymologists is that it was influenced by "flummock," a word of English dialectical origin used to refer to a clumsy person. This "flummock" may also be the source of the word lummox, which also means "a clumsy person."


‘That ain’t no part of the present consideration, Sammy,’ replied Mr.Weller. ‘Verever he’s a-goin’ to be tried, my boy, a alleybi’s the thing to get him off. Ve got Tom Vildspark off that ‘ere manslaughter, with a alleybi, ven all the big vigs to a man said as nothing couldn’t save him. And my ‘pinion is, Sammy, that if your governor don’t prove a alleybi, he’ll be what the Italians call reg’larly flummoxed, and that’s all about it.’

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2012/02/03 - Dickens's very first novel, The Pickwick Papers from 1837, introduced such slang terms as butter-fingers ("a clumsy person"), flummox ("bewilder"), sawbones ("surgeon"), and whizz-bang ("sound of a gunshot"). Again, some of ...


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