中英之鑒 中式英語之鑒176

[誤] He started from white hand, developing a small factory into an international business group.

[正] He started from scratch, developing a small factory into an international business group.

注： “白手”是“從零開始”的意思，而不是“白色的手”。所以，有時(shí)候直譯是會(huì)貽笑大方的。scratch 作名詞時(shí)曾有“起跑線”之意，所以 start from scratch 才是“白手起家”的正確翻譯。