单词 | since adam delved |
释义 | > as lemmassince (also when) Adam delved (and Eve span) a. since (also when) Adam delved (and Eve span): since (or when) Adam (and Eve) were alive; (hence) since (or in) the very earliest period of human existence.Until the early 19th cent. usually in the proverbial phrase ‘When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then a gentleman’, associated with the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 and intimating that social inequality had no place in the biblical depiction of Paradise. ΚΠ a1450 in C. Brown Relig. Lyrics 14th Cent. (1924) 96 When adam delf & eue span, spir, if þou wil spede, Whare was þan þe pride of man þat now merres his mede. a1450 T. Walsingham Historia Anglicana (1864) II. 32 Whan Adam dalf, and Eve span, Wo was thanne a gentilman? c1525 J. Rastell Of Gentylnes & Nobylyte sig. Aviv For when adam dolf and eue span who was then a gentylman. 1777 T. Campbell Philos. Surv. S. Ireland xxxii. 308 England..had its Levellers, who, aggrieved by the monopoly of farms, rebelliously asked, When Adam delved, and Eve span, Where was then your Gentleman? 1826 A. Cunningham Paul Jones I. v. 160 It's but the way of the world since Adam delved. 1873 L. M. Alcott Transcendental Wild Oats in Independent (N.Y.) 18 Dec. 1570/1 Such farming probably was never seen before since Adam delved. 1917 J. Head Mod. Dentistry i. 28 With all the talk that there has been about tooth-brushing since Adam delved and Eve span, the wisdom-tooth has been as badly treated as the nearsighted child of fifty years ago. 2002 G. Seddon in T. Bonyhady & T. Griffiths Words for Country 253 Like ‘mate’ and ‘cobber’, ‘mob’ implies reciprocal social obligation... When Adam delved and Eve span, we were all part of the same mob. 2008 D. McCloskey in S. Pearl & D. M. Levy Street Porter & Philosopher vi. 140 A commercial society provides, on a scale unique since Adam delved and Eve span, opportunities for fully flowful jobs. < as lemmas |
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