milque.toast
n.(名词)One who has a meek, timid, unassertive nature.胆小如鼠的人,懦夫:个性懦弱、胆小、不坚定的人
来源:After Caspar Milquetoast , a comic-strip character created by Harold Tucker Webster (885-952) 源自卡斯珀 Milquetoast ,哈乐德·塔科·韦伯斯特(885-952年)所创作的漫画人物
【引伸】
milque.toast.y
adj.(形容词)<注释>An indication of the effect on the English language of popular culture such as that found in comic strips is the adoption of names from the strips as English words.Casper Milquetoast, created by Harold Webster in 924, was a timid and retiring man,whose name was, of course, created from the name of a timid food.The first instance ofmilquetoast as a common noun is found in the mid-930`s. Milquetoast thus joins the ranks of other such words, includingsad sack, from a blundering army private invented by George Baker in 942,andWimpy, from J. Wellington Wimpy in the Popeye comic strip, which became a trade name for a hamburger.If we look to the related world of the animated cartoon,we must of course acknowledgeMickey Mouse, which has become a slang term for something that is easy, insignificant, small-time, worthless, or petty. 如果我们要在戏剧漫画中找到流行文化对英语语言的影响,那么漫画中的人物的名字被接受为英语单词可以算是例证了,924年赫拉德·韦伯斯特所创造的卡斯珀·米尔克吐斯特是一个胆小如鼠的人,他的名字当然是从一种非常柔软的食品而得来。Milquetoast 作为一个普通名词的第一例子于20世纪30年代中期被发现。 这样milquetoast 就加入了一类词, 这类词包括sad sack , 一个由乔治·贝克于942年发明指代愚蠢的陆军士兵的词汇,和Wimpy ,一个从滑稽漫画 突眼 中的丁·惠灵顿·温皮而得来的词, 它现在已成为汉堡包的商标。如果我们再看看相关的动画世界,我们当然得承认米奇老鼠 现在已成为指代容易的、不重要的、没有价值的或琐碎的东西的一个俚语词 注释>