原標題：January and May 才不是“一月和五月”，那是啥？

January and May

我們都知道，在英語中，January是一月，May是五月，合在一起的“January and May”可不是“一月和五月”的意思哦。該短語的正確意思是指

A marriage between a young and a much older individual.

一個年輕人和一個年長很多的人之間的婚姻。

This disparity was called January and May by Chaucer, January standing for the hoary frosts of old age and May for the young breath of spring.

這種年齡有差異的婚姻被喬叟稱為一月和五月，一月代表如白霜般年老，五月代表春天的新鮮氣息。

In Chaucer’s The Merchant’s Tale the young girl, May, marries January, a baron aged sixty. This fourteenth-century idea was transformed into December and May by the early 1600s (although January and May survived as well). December, of course, is not only cold but also comes at the end of the calendar year and so may provide a better analogy for late in life.

在喬叟的商人故事里，年輕的女孩，梅，嫁給了詹紐瑞，一個60歲的男爵。這個14世紀的故事在17世紀早期被轉變為12月和5月(盡管1月和5月也保留了下來)。十二月，當然，不僅是寒冷的，而且是在日歷年的末尾，所以可能為晚年提供了一個更好的類比。

例：

He is 17 years older than her. It's a January and May marriage.

他比她大17歲，因此可以說他們是老夫少妻了。

to have January chicks

來源于這同一個故事的還有一個短語：to have January chicks，這里的chicks當然不是指小雞，而是指孩子。

January和May結婚后不久，May就有了孩子，所以to have January chicks意思為“老來得子”。

例：

His parents gave birth to him when they were fifty-five. He is really a January chick.

他的父母55歲時生了他。他可真是(父母)老年得到的孩子。

It'll be a long day in January

從字面上來看，“It'll be a long day in January.”是“一月份里漫長的一天”的意思。其實不然，根據其英英釋義something that will never happen，可以得出這句話的意思“不可能發生的事情”，一句很地道的表達。

例：

It'll be a long day in January when you beat me at tennis.

別想打網球能打贏我，那根本不可能。

好啦，今天的小知識點，你學會了嘛？

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