| 释义 |
brain trust, brains trust
[transf. sense of trust n. 7.]
a. The name (usu. in form Brain Trust) given to a group of experts appointed in 1933 to advise the American President F. D. Roosevelt on political and economic matters.
b. (usu. brains trust) A group of persons assembled (orig. in Broadcasting) to give their impromptu views on topics of current or general interest. Both forms (in Britain usu. brains trust) also used transf. of any group of experts.
Quot. 1910 is a chance occurrence of the expression brain trust; the main use began in 1933.
1910in Amer. Speech (1957) XXXII. 57 Brain trust. 1929Papers Michigan Acad. Sci., Arts & Lett. X. 281/2 Brain Trust (Am.), the General Staff. 1933Sun (Baltimore) 17 Aug. 8/6 The ‘brain trust’ of the gang chooses a city for the ‘operation’ located within a hundred miles of a State boundary line. 1933Newsweek 2 Sept. 4/1 The President's Brain Trust, a little band of intellectuals. 1934H. G. Wells Exper. Autobiogr. II. ix. 791 The new President..was calling these new brains into consultation. Some journalist..invented the phrase the ‘Brains Trust’. Ibid. 792 This Brains Trust movement. 1937N.Y. Times 28 Mar. Mag. 4/2 The ‘brain trust’ of the C.I.O. are men who have read widely, thought deeply on industrial questions, and might be characterized..as ‘intellectuals’. 1937C. Odets Golden Boy i. iii. 45 The people who'll pay to watch a ‘brain trust’ you could fit in a telephone booth! 1939Amer. Speech XIV. 246 The term brains trust..was originally used by James Kieran during the campaign of 1932. He used the plural, brains. 1940War Illustr. 5 Jan. 546 ‘Brains Trust’ of the R.A.F. in France. 1941New Statesman 27 Sept. 304/3 A question sent in to the B.B.C. by a schoolboy of eleven was discussed by the Brains Trust on Sunday. 1941Manch. Guardian Weekly 5 Dec. 365/4 In one unit the commanding officer, a captain, and a private form the Brains Trust. 1945‘R. Crompton’ William & Brains Trust i. 13 It was the time when the Brains Trust movement, so rashly started by the B.B.C., was sweeping England. Every town, every village, every parish, every street had its Brains Trust, at whose meetings earnest seekers after knowledge discussed the scientific, political or economic problems of the day. 1962Lancet 1 Dec. 1180/1 A brains trust discussed practical health education of village parents. 1968A. Hailey Airport i. viii. 83 There were other sessions, some of them ‘brain trust’ affairs involving Kennedy aides.
Hence brain(s) truster, a member of a brain(s) trust.
1934Sun (Baltimore) 28 Mar. 3/3 The Roosevelt ‘brain trusters’. 1953Manchester Guardian Weekly 23 Apr. 2 Foreign Ministers, advisers, and anonymous brain trusters. 1958New Statesman 1 Feb. 127/2 He believes the Brains-trusters really are equipped to pronounce themselves upon, virtually, anything. |