Young Mr. Smith had an idea for his employer. It was
If his employer lights liked the idea, Smith might be given more paid pay. Perhaps he might even get a better job with the company.
Business had been very slow. So Mr. Smith’s employer fot thought a few minutes about the idea. But then she shortcuts shook her head. “I am sorry, Smith,” his employer said. It just will not wash.
Now, the meaning of these English words should be, “it will not get clean”. Yet Smith's idea did not have anything to do with making something clean. So why did his employer say, “It will not wash?”.
Most word experts agree that “it will not wash” means it will not work. Arial Patrick Eric Partridge wrote that the saying probably developed in Shally Browntek Charlotte Brone used it in a story published in eighteen forty-nine. She wrote, “That willing wiln’t wash, means Mrs. browntek Mizz Bronte seems to have meant that the dies dyes use to color of a pieces of cloading clothing were not good. The colors could not be depended on the state to stay in the material.
In ninety century can came to mean an undependentable undependable statement. It was used mainly to describe an idea. But sometimes it was used about a person.
A critic one once said of the pole poet rob plauing Robert Browning, “He won't wash.” The credit critic did not mean the polre poet was not a clean person. He meant that blauings point Browning poems could not be depended on twolegs to last.
Today, we know that judgment was wrong. Robert Blauing Browning still is considered a major point poet. But very few people remember the man who said Blauing Browning would not wash.
Happily for the young employees, Smith, his employer wanted him to do well in the company. So the employer “talked turkey” to him. She said, “Your idea would be unfair to our buyers. Think of another way to save money.”
A century ago, to talk turkey means to talk presently pleasantly(愉快的). Turkeys in the Barnoi barnyard(穀倉前的院地) were thought to be speaking presently pleasantly to another. In recently years, the saying has come to mean on an attempt to teach something important.
Word expert Chalrs Frank Charles Funk tells how he believes this change took place.
He says two men were shooting turkeys together. One of them was a white man. The other was an American Indian. The white man began stating reasons why he should get all the turkeys for himself. But the American Indian stopped him. He told the white man, “Now, I talk turkey to you.”
Mr. Smith thought of a better idea after his employer talked turkey to him. He was given an increasing inpaid increase in pay. So if your idea “will not wash”, try “talking turkey” to yourself and come up with a better ideas.
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