| 释义 |
country cousin
A cousin or relative from the country, to whom the sights and life of the town are novel; one whose ‘countrified’ manners and ways are apt to embarrass town relatives.
1770Foote Lame Lover ii. 42 Pester'd at table with the odious company of..country cousins. 1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) vii. lxviii, Escorting two or three coaches full of country-cousins on their first importation into London. 1887T. A. Trollope What I remember I. ii. 31 One of the sights of London for country cousins was to see the mails starting.
Hence country-ˈcousin v., to treat as a country-cousin; country-ˈcousinship, a relationship felt as awkward or embarrassing.
1870R. Broughton Red as Rose I. 139 They are fine, and inclined to ‘country cousin’ me. 1870Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i. (1873) 21 The brain is often forced to acknowledge the inconvenient country-cousinship of the stomach. Ibid. 364 Theory is too fine a dame to confess even a country-cousinship with coarse-handed Practice. |