Now that most aspects of daily life are deemed “non-essential”, pages devoted to parties, travel, fashion and luxury risk looking more frivolous than ever
Now that most aspects of daily life are deemed “non-essential”, pages devoted to parties, travel, fashion and luxury risk looking more frivolous than ever
When GPS Leads to S O S
Modern technological devices like cellphones and personal locator
beacons don’t mean that hikers can afford to be careless or frivolous.
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
Facing a financial crisis, Cake Shop, a small club on the Lower East
Side of Manhattan, started an Internet fund-raising campaign to keep its
doors from closing.
Man Claims Facebook Ownership
A
New York judge issued a temporary restraining order restricting the
transfer of Facebook assets, amid a man's claim that he owns 84% of the
social-networking company. Facebook calls the suit frivolous.
The British press An empire at bay
PayPal founder Max Levchin's latest start-up Slide, which makes helps MySpace and Facebook users make sparkly slide shows, may seem frivolous. But Mr. Levchin expects the lighter side of the Web to generate serious money, even more than PayPal did, which he sold to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.
Down-hearted doubters dull and excluded,
Frivolous, sullen, moping, angry, affected, dishearten'd,
atheistical,
I know every one of you, I know the sea of torment, doubt, despair
and unbelief.
---Song of Myself
grumble[grum・ble]
- 発音記号[grʌ'mbl]
[動](自)
1 （…のことで）不平を言う, ぶつぶつ言う((at, about, over ...))
2 低くうなる；〈雷などが〉ゴロゴロ鳴る, とどろく.
━━(他)…を不平がましく言う, ぶつぶつ言う((out))；…と不平を言う((that節))
━━[名]
1 （…への）不平, 不満, 苦情((at, about, over ...))；不満の種.
2 ゴロゴロ［ガタガタ］いう音.
-bler
[名]為什麼面對暴民，表現勇敢的是女人居多？
1，英國教育部次官詹金思向怒吼的抗議者舉中指。
2，支持國民教育、差一點就做了林鄭教育局局長（好彩佢冇做）的陳美齡姐姐雖然沒有舉中指（她在日本居住多年，接受東亞高等文化薰陶，人家有修養），卻無視中國民意，也不理會後進藝人余文樂的下場，竟公然哀悼好朋友安倍——是真的：好朋友，連護照和日本旅游簽證隨時都攞唔到的小粉紅唔羡慕得咁多。還有人家三個小孩都進了美國史丹福。酸够了嗎——不知「作為中國人，不該為安倍的死而難過」的中國網民如何裁決：不必在中國市場賺錢的陳美齡姐姐是中國人？香港人？日本人？
bay5
/beɪ/
verb
gerund or present participle: baying
- (of a dog, especially a large one) bark or howl loudly."the dogs bayed"
- (of a group of people) shout loudly, typically to demand something."the crowd bayed for an encore"
at bay
Cornered, in distress, as in Angry bystanders chased the thief into an alley and held him at bay until the police arrived. This idiom originally came from hunting, where it describes an animal that has been driven back and now faces pursuing hounds. Its use for other situations dates from the late 1500s.A Phrase A Week apaw@phrasefind
Keep at bay
Meaning
Prevent, either a person or an event, from advancing nearer.
Origin
'Keep at bay' (sometimes used as 'hold at bay') is one of those expressions that we are likely to know the meaning of because we have picked it up from colloquial use in our youth and worked out the meaning from the context it was used in. The nature of how we learn language allows us to gain a knowledge of what an idiom means without necessarily knowing the meaning of the words contained in it - which I guess is why pages like this one get readers.
Anyhow, back to the phrase itself. It seems plausible that 'at bay' is a nautical phrase and that the allusion is to a ship that is anchored in a bay and waiting to enter a port. 'In the offing' has pretty much the same meaning. As it turns out, we only need one expression in English for that circumstance and 'keep at bay' derives from a completely different place.
The Old French words 'abbay' or 'abai' mean 'barking'. These came into English, first as 'abay' and later as 'at bay'. Hounds that were barking were said in the 14th century to be 'at a bay'. This is recorded in the English romantic story Guy of Warwick, circa 1330:Into a forest þat swine him ȝede. Into a ficke hegges he gan him hede. Þer he stod at a bay.(A fat boar went into a forest. He hid in a thick hedge. He [the hound] stood there barking.)
To keep at bay meant then to be in a standoff with a baying dog that was intent on killing - a scenario which also gave us the expression 'baying for blood'. In more placid moments hounds also 'bay at the moon'.
In recent times the phrase 'keep at bay' has taken on the more general meaning of 'fend off'. The earliest example that I can find of the modern 'keep at bay' (as opposed to 'at a bay') and which doesn't refer directly to hunting with dogs is from The Derby Mercury, February 1759, in a report of England's war with France:
We have seen the French kept at bay for the whole campaign, and they are gone into their winter quarters.
bay5
/beɪ/
verb
gerund or present participle: baying
- (of a dog, especially a large one) bark or howl loudly."the dogs bayed"
- (of a group of people) shout loudly, typically to demand something."the crowd bayed for an encore"
bay
- [béi]
[名][U]
1 （追跡中の猟犬の長く低い）ほえ声, うなり声.
2 ((通例at, toを前に置いて))（けもの・逃亡者などが）追い詰められた状態；窮境, どたん場；追い詰められて刃向かう状態；絶体絶命の反撃
turn ［come］ to bay
追い詰められて刃向かう
追い詰められて刃向かう
bring ［drive］ a criminal to bay
犯人を追い詰める
犯人を追い詰める
be ［stand］ at bay
追い詰められている
追い詰められている
keep ［hold］ an enemy at bay
敵を寄せつけない.
敵を寄せつけない.
3 ((しばしばatを前に置いて))（動物・人などに）刃向かわれて手こずる状態.
━━[動](自)〈猟犬などが〉（…に）長く低くほえる, うなる, わめく((at, for ...)).
━━(他)
1 〈猟犬が〉…にほえつく, ほえて…を襲う.
2 …を追い詰める.
3 〈人が〉…とほえるような声で言う."1926年11月底，局勢已是極其困難，丁此時致函胡適：「我細讀你的信，覺得你到了歐洲，的確是吃了一劑補藥，心裏異常的高興。不肯frivolous（隨俗浮沉），真可說是你的覺悟，我們處中國目前環境，真要立定了腳跟，咬緊了牙齒，認真做事，認真做人。」24雖為針對胡氏的思想變化立言，何嘗不是觸景生情有感而發的夫子自道。 "
frivolous
(frĭv'ə-ləs)
adj.
- Unworthy of serious attention; trivial: a frivolous novel.
- Inappropriately silly: a frivolous purchase.
[Middle English, probably from Latin frīvolus, of little value, probably from friāre, to crumble.]
frivolously friv'o·lous·ly adv.[形]
1 つまらない, 取るに足らない.
2 あさはかな, 軽薄な.
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