Plans for a cenotaph for the great scientist would have been the tallest building in the world.
From Instagram: US President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe walk after laying wreaths at the cenotaph at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, western Japan, on May 27th 2016. Obama is the only US president to visit the site of the world's first atomic bomb attack, bringing global attention both to survivors and to his unfulfilled vision of a world without nuclear weapons
From Serge Gainsbourg's reggae adaptation of La Marseillaise to Le Banana Split by Lio, celebrate all sounds Gallic with BBC Culture's Bastille Day playlist on Spotify: http://bbc.in/1rb8Bzm
(And here's Gainsbourg's version of the French anthem:http://youtu.be/mLq7EcvRaf0)
Fool's errand
Meaning
A pointless undertaking.
Origin
The description 'fool' is now often used as a contemptuous insult, but in the Middle Ages it didn't have such negative connotations. A fool then was a naive simpleton but regarded with respect and even admiration - somewhat the way that 'the fool on the hill' is portrayed in The Beatles' song. The numerous names and phrases that contain the word 'fool' generally refer to how easy it is to dupe (or to fool if you like) a fool. Examples of this are:
Fool's gold - a brassy mineral that resembles gold.Fool's paradise - a state of euphoria based on false hope.
Fool's parsley - Lesser Hemlock, a poisonous weed that resembles parsley.
Fool's mate - a naive chess move that incurs checkmate in two moves.Fools rush in... - a proverb indicating the unworldly lack of caution shown by fools.
It has long been part of the initiation of new recruits to send them on 'fool's errands'. A credulous beginner might be sent to the stores to fetch a skyhook or a tin of striped paint. The first references to 'fool's errand' come in texts from the 18th century. An early example is from the Yorkshire-born clergyman Edmund Hickeringill's Priest-craft, 1705:
Did not the Pope send all the Princes in Christendom upon a Fools Errand, to gain the Holy Land, that he might (as he did in their absense) rob them of their territories.
Given that playing tricks on the simple-minded must have been happening since Adam was a lad, it seems odd that 'fool's errand' didn't emerge into the language until the 18th century. The reason for this is that mediaeval England had a different name for the sport, which was a 'sleeveless errand'. From the Tudor era to around the 1700s, 'sleeveless' was very commonly used to mean 'futile' or 'trifling'. 'Sleeveless answers' were those that gave no useful information and a 'sleeveless errand' was a fool's errand, often used to get someone out of the way. The historian Raphael Holinshed used the expression in Chronicles, 1577:
So as all men might thinke that his prince made small account of him, to send him on such a slevelesse errand.
'Sleeveless' had also been used for centuries before with the same meaning as now, that is, 'without sleeves', so it's reasonable to assume that's where the 'futile' meaning of sleeveless derived. What's not clear, and despite my best efforts I've not been able to find out, is why 'sleeveless' was used with that meaning. Such usage of the word has long since died out and, although it's not difficult to make guesses at the link between 'sleeveless' and 'futile', to know the real truth of that derivation we may need get aboard a time machine.
The Phrase A Week newsletter has 130,000 subscribers.
cenotaph
noun [C]
a public monument (= special statue or building) built in memory of particular people who died in war, often with their names written on it
n.
━━ n. 死没者記念碑; 〔英〕 （the C-） （ロンドンの）戦没者記念碑.
A monument erected in honor of a dead person whose remains lie elsewhere.
[French cénotaphe, from Old French, from Latin cenotaphium, from Greek kenotaphion : kenos, empty + taphos, tomb.]
http://www.wretch.cc/blog/lapattejaune
cenotaph
(sĕn'ə-tăf')
n.
A monument erected in honor of a dead person whose remains lie elsewhere.
[French cénotaphe, from Old French, from Latin cenotaphium, from Greek kenotaphion : kenos, empty + taphos, tomb.]
The Cenotaph
譯言"虛塚"。
cenotaphic
cen'o·taph'ic adj.
- [sénətæ`f | -tɑ`ːf][名]
1 （死者の）記念碑.
2 ((the C-))（LondonのWhitehallにある）世界大戦戦没者記念碑.
Every French president since de Gaulle has imagined some Pharaonic cultural monument or other to honor La Grande Nation, as the mocking German media occasionally call their Gallic neighbor, and to enshrine himself, of course. François Mitterrand became a virtual Ramesses II, opening the Bastille Opera, a new National Library, the Arab World Institute and the Louvre pyramid.
Pharaoh 古埃及"法老"王
also phar·aoh (fâr'ō, fā'rō)
n.
Every French president since de Gaulle has imagined some Pharaonic cultural monument or other to honor La Grande Nation, as the mocking German media occasionally call their Gallic neighbor, and to enshrine himself, of course. François Mitterrand became a virtual Ramesses II, opening the Bastille Opera, a new National Library, the Arab World Institute and the Louvre pyramid.
Pharaoh 古埃及"法老"王
also phar·aoh (fâr'ō, fā'rō)
n.
- A king of ancient Egypt.
- A tyrant.
[Middle English Pharao, from Late Latin Pharaō, from Greek, from Hebrew par'ō, from Egyptian pr-'' : pr, house + '', great.]
Pharaonic Phar'a·on'ic (fâr'ā-ŏn'ĭk) adj.Bastille
Line breaks: Bas|tille
Pronunciation: /baˈstiːl/
A fortress in Paris built in the 14th century and used in the 17th-18th centuries as a state prison. Its storming by the mob on 14 July 1789 marked the start of the French Revolution.
Origin
via Old French from Provençal bastida, from bastir'build'.
Bastille Day is the common name given in English-speaking countries to the national day of France, which is celebrated on 14 July each year. In French, it is formally called Fête nationale and commonly and legally le 14 juillet (French ...
沒有留言:
張貼留言