“January and May”才不是“一月和五月”，那是啥？

我們都知道，在英語中，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。該短語的正確意思是指

?

A marriage between a young and a much older individual.

一個(gè)年輕人和一個(gè)年長很多的人之間的婚姻。

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.

這種年齡有差異的婚姻被喬叟稱為一月和五月，一月代表如白霜般年老，五月代表春天的新鮮氣息。

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.

在喬叟的商人故事里，年輕的女孩，梅，嫁給了詹紐瑞，一個(gè)60歲的男爵。這個(gè)14世紀(jì)的故事在17世紀(jì)早期被轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)?2月和5月(盡管1月和5月也保留了下來)。十二月，當(dāng)然，不僅是寒冷的，而且是在日歷年的末尾，所以可能為晚年提供了一個(gè)更好的類比。

例：

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

他比她大17歲，因此可以說他們是老夫少妻了。

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