softly, softly, catchee monkey
短语
英文释义
短语
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Proceed cautiously or gently to achieve an objective.
— "Prudens qui patiens," was the motto of our great Coke : a motto which the negro pithily paraphrases — "Softly, softly, catch monkey."
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Capture a target without startling it and causing it to run away.
— Softly, softly, catchee monkey, I thought to myself....slow and sure was the way with a woman like this.
词源
Uncertain. Commentators refer to a variety of African languages or nations, but generally lack specific detail. Benham's Book of Quotations suggests the phrase originated from Black English, but is unclear. Compare the Wolof proverb, Ndànk-ndànk, mooy jàpp golo ci ñaay (“Slowly, slowly one catches a monkey in the forest”).
Although the phrase is attested with non-standard assonant catchee mainly from the twentieth century, Eric Partridge suggests it was probably coined in the late nineteenth. Quotations from the mid-nineteenth century use catch or caught the monkey.
Although the phrase is attested with non-standard assonant catchee mainly from the twentieth century, Eric Partridge suggests it was probably coined in the late nineteenth. Quotations from the mid-nineteenth century use catch or caught the monkey.
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数据来源: Wiktionary