“January and May”才不是“一月和五月”，那是啥？

我们都知道，在英语中，January是一月，May是五月，合在一起的“January and May”可不是“一月和五月”的意思哦。该短语的正确意思是指

​

A marriage between a young and a much older individual.

一个年轻人和一个年长很多的人之间的婚姻。

This disparity was called January and May by Chaucer, January standing for the hoary frosts of old age and May for the young breath of spring.

这种年龄有差异的婚姻被乔叟称为一月和五月，一月代表如白霜般年老，五月代表春天的新鲜气息。

In Chaucer’s The Merchant’s Tale the young girl, May, marries January, a baron aged sixty. This fourteenth-century idea was transformed into December and May by the early 1600s (although January and May survived as well). December, of course, is not only cold but also comes at the end of the calendar year and so may provide a better analogy for late in life.

在乔叟的商人故事里，年轻的女孩，梅，嫁给了詹纽瑞，一个60岁的男爵。这个14世纪的故事在17世纪早期被转变为12月和5月(尽管1月和5月也保留了下来)。十二月，当然，不仅是寒冷的，而且是在日历年的末尾，所以可能为晚年提供了一个更好的类比。

例：

He is 17 years older than her. It's a January and May marriage.

他比她大17岁，因此可以说他们是老夫少妻了。

今天的内容都学会了么?

欢迎评论交流心得~