趣味短语：名褒实贬 damn with faint praise

damn with faint praise

【英文解释】express disapproval by praising inadequately

【中文解释】名褒实贬，用轻微的赞扬进行贬低

【短语来源】A quotation from Alexander Pope's critical portrait of Joseph Addison in lines 201-2 of Epistle to Doctor Arbuthnot(1735):'Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,/ And without sneering teach the rest to sneer.' A similar form of words had appeared earlier in one of the works of William Wycherley, who knew and was later edited(and plagiarised?)by Pope:'And with faint praises one another damn.'

亚历山大 蒲柏（Alexander Pope）大家听过咩？他被称为18世纪英国最伟大的诗人，他的许多词句写得工整、精练、富有哲理性，有些诗行几乎成为格言。
damn with faint praise这个短语就是出自他的一首诗《致阿巴思诺医生书》（Epistle to Doctor Arbuthnot）。在这首诗的201-2行他写下):'Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,/ And without sneering teach the rest to sneer.' 讽刺身居高位，逍遥法外的道德败坏者。
其实跟这个短语类似的句子最早见于英国剧作家威廉·威彻利的作品，原句是这样的：'And with faint praises one another damn.'蒲柏进行了改造，就变成damn with faint praise啦。
这位文学大师果然造就了经典名言啊。

【有例有句】Don't be so glad, he is just damning with faint praise.

别太高兴了，他只不过是话里有话，在贬低你呢。

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