Language Café

Definition: The act of someone willingly making a sacrifice for the benefit of others.Etymology: Refers to sports teams when a player makes a sacrifice for the benefit of the team.

Definition: Cheap, no added luxuries.Etymology: Frills refers to embellishment.

Definition: A first experience of something, usually something difficult or unpleasant.Etymology: Baptisms are a religious rite practiced in many faiths, a baptism of fire would imply something dangerous, it was used in 1800s in France to describe someone's first battlefield experience.

From the apple in the Garden of Eden that was forbidden to Adam by God. Now it is a source of pleasure that involves breaking a rule or doing something that you are not supposed to do.

Definition: The temporary inability for a writer to think of what to write.  Etymology: Refers to a "road block" for writers.

Definition: They are talking about how they can defeat someone, but they can't back this claim up.Etymology: Literally talking big.

Definition: Implying that a (usually) negative event is easily predictable based on the current situation.Etymology: From the handwriting on the wall that was witnessed at a banquet hosted by King Belshazzar. As those at the feast profaned and drunk from the sacred vessels pillaged from the Jerusalem Temple, a disembodied hand appeared and wrote on the palace wall the words, "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin." The visionary Daniel was summoned and interpreted this message as the imminent end for the Babylonian kingdom. That night, Belshazzar was killed and the Persians sacked the capital city.

少找给…钱 If someone short-changes you, they do not give you enough change after you have bought something from them. 欺骗;亏待;克扣 If you are short-changed, you are treated unfairly or dishonestly, often because you are given less of something than you deserve.

这又是一个出自圣经的短语。在《新约 马太福音》，耶稣责备法利赛人身为无知百姓的领导，却对真理视而不见，导人于迷。“Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.”Matthew 15:14 后来人们就用该短语表达以下的意思：The incompetent leading others who are also incompetent. 问道于盲，外行指导外行，半斤八两

Definition: To behave or perform in a way that is meant to attract the attention of a lot of people.Etymology: Refers to a Mississippi River steamship containing a theater and carrying a troupe of actors to give plays to river communities.