| 释义 |
Wardour Street|ˈwɔːdəstriːt|
1. The name of a street in London, formerly occupied mainly by dealers in antique and imitation-antique furniture. Used attrib. in Wardour-street English, applied to the pseudo-archaic diction affected by some modern writers, esp. of historical novels. Also in other attrib. phrases.
1888A. Ballantyne in Longm. Mag. Oct. 585 (title) Wardour-Street English. Ibid. 589 This is not literary English of any date; this is Wardour-Street Early English—a perfectly modern article with a sham appearance of the real antique about it. 1896Sat. Rev. 8 Feb. 154/2 Our Wardour Street romancers and whimpering Scotch humourists. 1918Spectator 20 Apr. 422/1 What we are obliged by our sincerity to describe as thoroughly bad, Wardour Street English. Ibid. 422/2 There are obvious reminiscences of..Ivanhoe in this piece of most unblushing but rather vivid Wardour Street. 1958L. Forster in Aspects of Translation 20 The peculiar Wardour Street language which some classical scholars used for English a generation or so ago. 1976New Yorker 19 Apr. 118/3 To the difficulty of following Borgese's Wardour Street diction (‘Bread and wine needs a man to fight and die’; ‘Us enchants he, but eke frightens’) Sessions adds that of hearing the words.
2. Used attrib. and absol. with reference to Wardour Street as a centre of the British film industry.
1920Stage Year Bk. 51 A still more ambitious ‘ten million pound’ company died even before it became more than a Wardour Street fairy tale. 1927Melody Maker Aug. 818/3 A 'phone message, or note perhaps, from Wardour-street. 1948Daily Mail 7 Feb. 2/5 This has caused a few long faces in Wardour-street. 1958Punch 17 Sept. 360/1 Any Wardour Street film-distributor knows that the public wants a boy-girl story, a happy ending..and sensational spectacle. 1975Times 20 Dec. 9/7 It amazes me how few films we manage to make in a year here: Wardour Street seems to have accepted defeat. |