| 释义 |
misery loves company
misery loves companyMiserable people like others to be unhappy. I know misery loves company, but quit trying to bring me down just because you had a bad day at work.See also: company, love, miseryMisery loves company.Prov. Unhappy people like other people to be unhappy too. Jill: Why is Linda criticizing everybody today? Jane: Her boss criticized her this morning, and misery loves company. I should probably feel bad because my sister is so depressed, but I'm pretty depressed myself. Misery loves company.See also: company, love, miserymisery loves companyFellow sufferers make unhappiness easier to bear, as in She secretly hoped her friend would fail, too-misery loves company. Words to this effect appeared in the work of Sophocles (c. 408 b.c.) and other ancient writers; the earliest recorded use in English was about 1349. See also: company, love, miserymisery loves companyFellow sufferers make pain easier to bear. This observation dates from ancient Greek and Roman times or even earlier; Sophocles (Oedipus at Colonnus, ca. 408 b.c.) and Seneca (ca. a.d. 54) both wrote words to that effect. John Lyly’s Euphues stated it as “In misery it is great comfort to haue a companion” (1579), but the precise wording of the modern cliché does not appear until the nineteenth century. More recently, Brian Moore quipped, “If misery loves company, then triumph demands an audience” (An Answer from Limbo, 1962).See also: company, love, misery |