| 释义 |
‖ ab ovo, phr.|æb ˈəʊvəʊ|
[a. L. ab from + ōvō, abl. of ōvum egg.]
From the (very) beginning.
Cf. Hor. Sat. i. 3. 6 ab ouo usque ad mala ‘from the egg to the apples’, alluding to the Roman custom of beginning a meal with eggs and ending it with apples; and Hor. A.P. 147 Nec gemino bellum Troianum orditur ab ouo, in allusion to the twin egg from which Helen of Troy was born.
a1586Sidney Apol. Poet. (1595) Sig. K1v, If they [dramatic poets] wil represent an history, they must not (as Horace saith) beginne Ab ouo: but they must come to the principall poynt of that one action, which they wil represent. 1623J. Chamberlain in Court & Times of Jas. I (1848) II. 389, I spoke with one yesterday, that on Tuesday heard the king relate the whole story, ab ovo, from point to point, with great contentment. 1862Thackeray Philip I. i. 11 Shall we begin ab ovo, sir? c1879W. James in R. B. Perry Tht. & Char. W. James (1935) I. 480 Cognition would have to be evolved again almost ab ovo. 1927D. H. Lawrence Mornings in Mexico 12 Is it possible that we are so absolutely, so innocently, so ab ovo ridiculous? |