| 释义 |
Jonathan|ˈdʒɒnəθən|
[A personal name; orig. that of the son of Saul, king of Israel.]
1. (esp. in phrase Brother Jonathan.) A generic name for the people of the United States, and also for a representative United States citizen.
Understood to have originated in the expression Brother Jonathan (cf. 2 Sam. i. 26), said to have been applied to Jonathan Trumbull, Governor of Connecticut, by General Washington, who often sought his advice. Hence it is believed to have been applied at first to a New Englander, and at length, like Yankee, in the wider sense.
1816‘Quiz’ Grand Master i. 25 May she all Europe's arms withstand, Keep France and Jonathan in awe. 1816–18F. Hall Trav. Canada & U.S. 330 A humorous publication entitled ‘John Bull and Brother Jonathan’. 1820Syd. Smith Wks. (1840) I. 372 We can inform Jonathan what are the inevitable consequences of being too fond of glory: Taxes upon every article which enters into the mouth. 1825Scott Fam. Lett. (1894) II. 384 But I do not suppose brother Jonathan would like much so large a fortune passing out of his continent to gild a Marchioness's coronet in Britain. 1848Lowell Biglow P. Poems 1890 II. 36 To move John [Bull] you must make your fulcrum of solid beef and pudding; an abstract idea will do for Jonathan.
2. See quot.
1847–78Halliwell, Jonathan, an instrument used by smokers to light their pipes with.
3. A red-skinned variety of dessert apple, first introduced in the United States.
1831J. Buel in Gardeners' Mag. VII. 239 Besides the Newton, I know of none except the Aesopus, the Pownal, the White and the New, or Jonathan. 1831Catal. Fruits in Garden of Hort. Soc. (ed. 2) 18 Apples... Jonathan. 1845A. J. Downing Fruits Amer. 113 The Jonathan is a very beautiful dessert apple... The original tree of this new sort is growing on the farm of Mr. Philip Rick, of Kingston, New York. 1879Chicago Tribune 3 May 10/3 Our best winter apples are..Jeniton, Jonathan, Red Canada, Wythe. 1924Glasgow Herald 23 Dec. 5 In 1922 the price realised for Jonathans did not pay the cost of packing. 1932[see delicious a. 2 b]. 1950Smock & Neubert Apples & Apple Products ix. 233 Jonathan spot occurs primarily on Jonathan apples. 1959[see delicious a. 2 b]. 1963A. Lubbock Austral. Roundabout 68 The crimson-cheeked Jonathan apples.
Hence Jonathaniˈzation, an Americanizing.
1854Emerson in Corr. w. Carlyle II. cxxxviii. 235 Come and see the Jonathanization of John. 1894Sat. Rev. 15 Dec. 652/1 The Jonathanization of John is going on..symptoms of American corruption and misrule. |