English Collection

日頃目に付いた覚えたい英単語、慣用句などの表現についてのメモです。

in a pig's eye

2015年10月02日 | 英語の本を読む

今日取り上げるA Stranger is Watchingに出てきた慣用句も何か見覚えがあります。
'Maybe. When Arty left with the others ... and they said something about not having the chance to see Bill before he left for Rhode Island ...'
'Yeah. And in a pig's eye Arty's heading for Rhode Island ...'
'That's what I mean. He said something else ... and that advertising guy Allan Kroeger made a crack on top of it ... a crack about ... about the painted desert. That's it!'
この "in a pig's eye" は昔豚インフルエンザは流行した時に取り上げたジョークに出てきた表現と語呂が似ているのです。
Someone once said that when a black man becomes president of the United States, pigs will fly. Sure enough, 100 days later, swine flu.
一応辞書で "in a pig's eye" の意味を確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Expressing scornful disbelief at a statement.: In a pig's eye is rhyming slang for lie, and usually means Nonsense!
・The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms: Under no condition, not at all, as in In a pig's eye he'll pay me back, or You think he's competent? In a pig's eye! This expression, a euphemism for in a pig's ass, is generally used as a strong negative.
なるほど。しかし、あり得ない "pigs will fly" の方が韻を踏んでいるので "in a pig's eye" から連想し易いですね。

コメント
  • X
  • Facebookでシェアする
  • はてなブックマークに追加する
  • LINEでシェアする