密歇根新闻广播 lion's share这个词组的来源

 

If someone takes the lion's share, it's safe to say there's not going to be much left for everyone else.

But why does it have to be the "lion's" share? Why not the tiger's or the bear's?

You can blame Aesop for this one.

The story behind this idiom seems to go back to Aesop's fables¹. The gist² of the story is the lion goes out with some other animals to go hunting, and when they're divvying up their catch, the lion takes the first share.

Seems pretty reasonable since, after all, the lion is the king of the jungle. But then the lion goes on to take the other shares, for a variety of reasons and with a variety of threats.

By the time this phrase comes into English in the 18th century, its meaning has changed. It no longer means to take everything, but instead means to take most of something or the principle parts.

Most of what though?

A lot of the examples that pop into your mind probably have something to do with money -- the lion's share of the profits, the lion's share of the budget, the finances, the taxes, etc.

But according to the Corpus of Contemporary American English, people use "lion's share" to talk about all kinds of things. The lion's share of attention, of work, of responsibility, of blame, of refugees, of blog posts. Anything, really.

That takes care of the "lion" half of this expression, but what about "share?"

This term goes back to Old English, and originally means "a division." A "land share" was a division of land. "Share" later comes to mean a portion of something allotted³ to someone or the portion that someone contributes.

Around the 16th century, English speakers turn "share" into a verb that means to divide or apportion⁴ something into shares. This is where we get the more general meaning of possessing something together or occupying something together -- basically, what your kindergarten teacher taught you to do.

There's another, more recent meaning for share, and that's to confess or to talk about something.

According to the Oxford⁵ English Dictionary, we began "sharing" our thoughts and feelings in the 20th century. It's likely we were already talking our thoughts and feelings before that moment, but we didn't describe it as "sharing."

1 fables   

n.寓言( fable的名词复数 )；神话，传说

参考例句：

• Some of Aesop's Fables are satires. 《伊索寓言》中有一些是讽刺作品。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Little Mexican boys also breathe the American fables. 墨西哥族的小孩子对美国神话也都耳濡目染。 来自辞典例句

2 gist   

n.要旨；梗概

参考例句：

• Can you give me the gist of this report?你能告诉我这个报告的要点吗？
• He is quick in grasping the gist of a book.他敏于了解书的要点。

3 allotted   

分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I completed the test within the time allotted . 我在限定的时间内完成了试验。
• Each passenger slept on the berth allotted to him. 每个旅客都睡在分配给他的铺位上。

4 apportion   

vt.（按比例或计划）分配

参考例句：

• It's already been agreed in principle to apportion the value of the patents.原则上已经同意根据专利的价值按比例来分配。
• It was difficult to apportion the blame for the accident.很难分清这次事故的责任。

5 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。