释义 |
‖ toujours, adv. (and n.)|tuʒur| [Fr., = always.] 1. toujours gai |ge|, ‘always cheerful’; cheerful under all circumstances; also as n., an unfailingly cheerful disposition. Occas. partially anglicized as toujours gay.
1711Addison in D. Piper Eng. Face (1957) vii. 163 A certain smirking Air..bestowed indifferently on every Age and Degree... The Toujours Gai appeared even in Judges, Bishops and Privy-Counsellors. 1899Kipling From Sea to Sea I. viii. 263 They [sc. prostitutes] spoke of themselves as ‘gay’... A night's reflection has convinced me that there is no hell for these women in another world... It was my duty to watch through the night a patient—gay, toujours gay, remember—quivering on the verge of the ‘jumps’. 1927D. Marquis archy & mehitabel xiv. 56 Well archy the world is full of ups and downs but toujours gai is my motto. 1972M. Kenyon Shooting of Dan McGrew xxi. 174 He was ‘toujours gai’ (I wonder is he on drugs?). 2. toujours perdrix |pɛrdri|, lit. ‘always partridge’, an allusive phr. used to imply that one can have too much of a good thing. [For an explanation see A. M. Hyamson Dict. Eng. Phrs. (1922) 346/1.]
1818Blackw. Mag. Feb. 569/2 A partridge is a good thing; and yet even ‘Toujours Perdrix’ is not to be borne. 1877L. W. M. Lockhart Mine is Thine (1879) xvii. 163 He wanted a rest, a change from this toujours perdrix of ladies' society, polite small-talk, boredom. 1927D. H. Lawrence Let. 12 Dec. (1962) II. 1026 I'm sick of Jesus... We might have somebody else born for a change. Toujours perdrix! 3. Used simply: always.
1902G. Meredith Let. 19 Jan. (1970) III. 147 If it is toujours Goethe, that is because I share the culte. |