| 释义 |
Missouri U.S.|mɪs-, mɪˈzʊərɪ|
[The name of a river and a state in the U.S.]
1. A member of an American Indian people of the Sioux family, first encountered by Europeans near the Missouri River; also, the language of this people.
1703tr. Lahontan's New Voy. N.-Amer. I. 130 We..arriv'd on the 18th at the first Village of the Missouris. 1807P. Gass Jrnl. 26 Six of them were made chiefs, three Otos and three Missouris. 1933L. Bloomfield Lang. iv. 72 The Siouan family includes many languages, such as..Missouri, Winnebago, [etc.]. 1947St. Louis (Missouri) Globe-Democrat 16 Mar., The Missouris were a comparatively insignificant tribe.
2. Colloq. phr. to be (or come) from Missouri: to be very sceptical; to believe nothing until it is demonstrated. (Originally I come from Missouri. You have got to show me.)
1900Missouri State Tribune (Jefferson City) 13 Dec. 4/1 Ex-Lieut.-Gov. Chas. P. Johnson thinks he knows the origin of the extensively-used expression: ‘I'm from Missouri; you'll have to show me’; at least he can recall its use twenty years ago in Colorado. 1901Columbia Missouri Statesman 13 Dec. 1/3 You gentlemen are from Kentucky, Texas, Tennessee and Arkansas and seem to trust each other, but ‘I'm from Missouri and you must show me’. 1912C. McCarthy Wisconsin Idea 291 In the words of the current slang phrase, every Wisconsin legislator ‘comes from Missouri’ and you have to ‘show him’. 1931Amer. Speech VI. 205 I'm from Missouri, I don't believe that; you'll have to show me, or prove it to me. 1963J. Mitford Amer. Way of Death iii. iv. 132 If you suggest..that Destiny led him there, he will give you an I'm-from-Missouri look.
3. attrib. and Comb., as Missouri antelope = pronghorn n.; Missouri Compromise Hist., an arrangement made in 1820 which provided that Missouri should be admitted to the Union as a slave state, but that slavery should not be allowed in any new state lying north of 36° 30′; also attrib.; Missouri Indian = sense 1 above; Missouri mule, a mule bred in Missouri; Missouri question Hist., the question of the conditions under which Missouri should be admitted into the Union, and the connected problems regarding slavery; Missouri skylark, a variety of pipit, Anthus spraguei.
1806Lewis & Clark in Deb. Congress U.S. (1852) 9th Congress 2 Sess. App. 1046 The Missouri antelope, (called Cabri′ by the inhabitants of the Illinois). 1820in T. H. Benton Exam. Dred Scott Case (1857) 102 The line is..nominated..by its popular descriptive appellation of ‘the Missouri Compromise Line’. 1847J. K. Polk Diary 16 Jan. (1910) II. 335 The line of the Missouri Compromise, viz., 36° 30′. 1943E. B. White One Man's Meat 16 The Missouri Compromise had temporarily settled the slavery question. 1949D. S. Freeman in B. A. Botkin Treas. S. Folklore p. x, Wirt..did not issue his life of Henry until almost the time of the Missouri Compromise.
1765R. Rogers Conc. Acct. N. Amer. 194 The inhabitants on this river are called the Missouri Indians. 1817J. Bradbury Trav. Interior Amer. 41 It is customary amongst the Missouri Indians to register every exploit in war, by making a notch for each on the handle of their tomahawks. 1923Nation (N.Y.) 17 Oct. 432 Then there is the Missouri mule. He it was who won the war. 1972Listener 21 Dec. 858/2 Not for nothing did the idiom ‘as stubborn as a Missouri mule’ come into the language.
1819J. Adams Let. 21 Dec. in T. Jefferson Writings (1903) XV. 236 The Missouri question, I hope, will follow the other waves under the ship, and do no harm. 1884J. G. Blaine 20 Yrs. Congress I. 15 The ‘Missouri question’..formally appeared in Congress in the month of December, 1818.
1858S. F. Baird in Rep. Explor. Route to Pacific (U.S. War Dept.) IX. 234 Neocorys Spraguei, Sclater. Missouri Skylark. 1940E. T. Seton Trail of Artist-Naturalist 299 The strictly prairie birds were gone—of the Missouri skylark, for instance, I saw not one. |