| 释义 |
whodunit colloq.|huːˈdʌnɪt|
Also whodunnit and (rare) other varr.
[repr. who done (= illiterate for did) it?]
A story or other work of fiction about the solving of a mystery, esp. a murder; a detective or murder story. Occas. used for ‘who did it’ in other contexts.
1930D. Gordon in News of Bks. (U.S.) July 10 Half-Mast Murder, by Milward Kennedy—A satisfactory whodunit. 1942G. Mitchell Laurels are Poison vi. 61 That was another case of Oo-dun-it. Or was it? 1943Britannia & Eve Feb. 16/1 Clifton Fadiman..moved in with an intellectual slap-stick show, which could be appreciated equally by professors and the public for ‘who-dun-it?’ books. 1951M. McLuhan Mech. Bride (1967) 104/2 Would the thriller fan be abashed to learn that the whodunit anticipated the techniques of modern science and art? 1959‘A. Gilbert’ Death takes Wife xiii. 173 The whodunnit writers have got us all educated. 1961Times 26 July 15/5 A new ‘whodunit’..is to be produced at St. Martin's theatre. 1971Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves vii. 69, I..go in mostly for who-dun-its and novels of suspense. For the who-dun-it Agatha Christie is always a safe bet. 1971E. Lamarchand Death on Doomsday xi. 169, I think sleeping dogs will be let lie, provided we can establish whodunit. 1975New Yorker 21 Apr. 2/1 (Advt.), Equus—A brilliant psychological whodunit by Peter Shaffer. 1980Times Lit. Suppl. 30 May 615/5 In the whodunnit, we are conditioned to look for not the most obvious but the least likely suspect.
Hence whoˈdun(n)itry, material or writing such as occurs in a ‘whodunit’.
1961Daily Tel. 18 Dec. 10/4 ‘The Judge and his Hangman’ on BBC television last night. This is whodunitry with undertones. 1966Punch 8 June 859/2 His The Weekend Girls..settles for whodunitry rather than sociology. 1972Daily Tel. 4 Apr. 9/8 There is no sexual element whatever, and..it doesn't dabble in whodunnitry. |