| 释义 |
ˈmoss-back
Also mossy-.
[f. moss n.1 + back n.; ? orig. a perversion of mossbunker.]
1. U.S.
a. A name for the menhaden or mossbunker.
b. ‘A large and old fish, as a bass: so called by anglers, in allusion to the growth of seaweed, etc., which may be found on its back’ (Cent. Dict. 1890).
1872Schele de Vere Americanisms 87 In the State of New York the same fish [Menhaden] appear under the name of Mossy Back or Mossbunkers.
2. slang.
a. During the civil war in the United States, one who hid himself to avoid the conscription for the Southern army. U.S.
1872Schele de Vere Americanisms 283 The Mossyback{ddd}was the man of the South, who secreted himself in a remote forest, or an inaccessible swamp, in order to escape conscription. His name was derived from the quaint fancy that he was determined to keep in hiding till ‘the moss should grow on his back’. 1890Century Dict., Moss-back.
b. One ‘behind the times’; one attached to antiquated notions; an extreme conservative. Often applied to the farmers of the Western States. Chiefly N. Amer.
1878C. Hallock Amer. Club List & Sportsman's Gloss. p. viii, Mossback, a settler; a homesteader; a pioneer farmer. (Western.) 1884Nor'Wester (Calgary) 3 June 4/1 The local mossback refers to the recent picking up of stones on Stephen Avenue. 1885Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 5 Mar. 2/3 Everybody rejoices over the passage of the bill... We say everybody— we except a few intense mossbacks, who were known during the war as copperheads. 1891C. Roberts Adrift Amer. App. 249 He was followed to the very verge of the wood, and then the exhausted ‘mossback’ left him to return to the house. 1924J. Buchan Three Hostages i. 10, I was becoming such a mossback that I had almost stopped reading the papers. 1935E. Pound Let. 28 Jan. (1971) 266 With De Vechii at Ministry of Education there wd. be more chance of action than with some aesthetic mossback, sentimentalizing over Dela Crusca. 1937J. D. Carr To wake the Dead xi. 162 Oh, Chris, you are an old mossback! 1941J. Smiley Hash House Lingo 38 Moss back, conservative eater. 1959W. A. Leising Arctic Wings 97, I listened to old mossbacks, prospectors, and trappers. 1973‘Trevanian’ Loo Sanction (1974) 212 The moss-backs of the National Gallery had pulled off quite a coup in securing the Marini Horse for a one-day exhibition.
attrib.1886N.Y. Sch. Jrnl. XXXI. 245 You visit a poor drunkard's wife, and in comes the husband, peremptorily ordering you out of door, quoting the moss-back maxim as his authority.
So moss-backed, mossy-backed adjs.
1876Congress Rec. 13 Jan. 411/1 [In the cotton states] those too cowardly to fight..were known as ‘mossy⁓backed rangers’ during the war. 1881Harper's Mag. Sept. 640/2 A thorough-bred, mossy-backed mountaineer. 1889‘Mark Twain’ Let. (1917) II. 520 Still mouthing empty reverence for those moss-backed frauds. 1893Outing (U.S.) XXII. 121/2 Earth-worms, fresh from the garden, will lure many a mossy-backed hermit from his lair. 1900Speaker 17 Mar. 644/1 A few malcontents and mossbacked mugwumps. 1963Economist 7 Sept. 826/1 Bankers..found themselves looking hopelessly moss-backed. 1975G. V. Higgins City on Hill vi. 148 He's mossbacked and close to a fascist, but he's perfectly sincere. |