На занятиях по лексикологии студенты зарубежной филологии изучают много интересного, в том числе, этимологию и функционирование фразеологизмов английского языка. Вот некоторые примеры молодых исследователей ЗФ-301.
ЭТО ИНТЕРЕСНО!
Для разминки:
To count noses
Значение: Считать количество учеников.
История возникновения:
Каждый английский учитель начинает свой урок с подсчёта количества учеников.
Пример употребления: It was hard for a teacher to count noses because all kids were bustling and were not on their seats. (Учителю было сложно пересчитать детей, потому что все они суетились и не были на своих местах).
А теперь примеры посерьезнее:
Don’t give up your day job
It is used for telling someone that you do not think they are very good at something.
To understand the origin of “don’t give up your day job” we have to understand the term “day job”. Of course, most of us have jobs that are carried out during the day, so why the term day job? Day job refers to a job that someone does to make money so they can do something else that they love to do but which they do not make much money doing. For example, many aspiring actors have ‘day jobs.’ Now, we can understand the origin of the idiom, as when someone is doing something, such as singing, acting, writing, or anything they love doing but are not being paid for, and they are not very good at it. This phrase is not usually used when someone actually wishes to become a professional at something other than their day job, as the idiom is meant to be humorous and to dash someone’s dreams is not considered very funny.
To hit the sack
To go to bed.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, people used to sleep on a cloth sack stuffed with hay. Before they went to bed, they would literally ‘hit the hay’ to make the mattress more comfortable and to make sure there were no bugs inside. The expression ‘hit the sack’ is thought to have originated from the sack that was stuffed with hay.
A white elephant
is a possession which its owner cannot dispose of and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. White (albino) elephants were regarded as holy in ancient times in Thailand and other Asian countries. Keeping a white elephant was a very expensive undertaking, since the owner had to provide the elephant with special food and provide access for people who wanted to worship it. If a Thai King became dissatisfied with a subordinate, he would give him a white elephant. The gift would, in most cases, ruin the recipient.
e.g. The stadium is likely to become a white elephant after the championships are over.
Learn foreign languages and replenish your speech!