| 释义 |
gremlin orig. R.A.F. slang.|ˈgrɛmlɪn|
[Orig. unknown, but probably formed by analogy with goblin.]
1. A mischievous sprite imagined as the cause of mishaps to aircraft; later, an embodiment of mischance in other activities.
1941C. Graves Thin Blue Line ix. 123 As he flew round, he wished that his instructor had never told him about the Little People—a mythological bunch of good and bad fairies originally invented by the Royal Naval Air Service in the Great War... Those awful little people, the Gremlins, who run up and down the wing with scissors going ‘snip, snap, snip’ made him sweat. 1942Observer 8 Nov. 6/5 Behaviour of..machines couldn't always be explained by..laws of aerodynamics. And so, lacking a Devil, the young fliers..invented a whole hierarchy of devils. They called them Gremlins, ‘on account of they were the goblins which came out of Fremlin beer bottles’. They were the genii loci of the R.A.F. messes in India and the Middle East, where Fremlin's beer bottles were plentiful. 1943C. Graves Seven Pilots 89 ‘Any Gremlin trouble last night?’ Wing Commander Prall asked Paddy... ‘None, thank goodness,’ Paddy replied. 1944Times 12 Aug. 2/1 The King said that on his way back from Italy they thought they heard a gremlin in the royal aeroplane. 1944Amer. Speech XIX. 280 Gremlins are mythical creatures who are supposed to cause trouble such as engine failure in aeroplanes, a curious piece of whimsy-whamsy in an activity so severely practical as flying. Now the gremlin seems to be extending its sphere of operations, so that the term can be applied to almost anything that inexplicably goes wrong in human affairs. 1955M. Gilbert Sky High xi. 163 ‘I hope you had a comfortable night,’ she said. ‘Not a single gremlin,’ said Tom. 1958Times 20 Feb. 5/2 A gremlin in the organ that had decided to add a noisy C sharp to the beautiful soft D major chords. 1959New Statesman 2 May 611/3 Unfortunately the misprint gremlin has raised its ugly head in my letter to you on 18 April. 1969Daily Tel. 15 Aug. 4/3 Gremlins were at work on this column yesterday and a 7 p.c. stake of the Furness Withy equity appeared in print as 27 p.c.
2. Surfing.
a. A young surfer.
b. A trouble-maker who frequents the beaches but does not surf. slang.
1961Life 1 Sept. 51 If [a beginner's] surfing career goes well, he will be a ‘gremlin’ in a few years. 1965J. M. Kelly Surf & Sea 286 Gremmie or gremlin, a young inexperienced surf enthusiast to whom nothing counts in life but surf-board and water. Also, an uncomplimentary term applied to those who hang around the beaches for reasons other than surfing. 1967Internat. Surfing III. iii. 23 There is really a lot of talent running around these days in the form of young gremlins. 1967J. Severson Great Surfing (Gloss.), Gremlin, a trouble⁓maker; one whose misdeeds cause surfing beaches to be lost and gives surfing a bad name. |