peanut gallery

Tiếng Anh sửa

Từ nguyên sửa

Ngữ nghĩa lịch sử “ban công cao dành cho người khách da đen” chắc bắt nguồn từ mối quan hệ giữa đậu lạc và các nô lệ gốc Phi châu đã đưa nó vào Bắc Mỹ;^[1] ngữ nghĩa mở rộng “nguồn chế nhạo” chắc bắt nguồn từ xu hướng khinh bỉ các ban công này và những người ngồi trong nó.

Danh từ sửa

peanut gallery (số nhiều peanut galleries)

(Thông tục) Bên phòng hoặc những người chế nhạo hay chê bai, nhất là những người làm như thể cái gì cũng biết (know-it-all) hoặc những người không chuyên môn.
Enough already from the peanut gallery; if you think you can do a better job, go right ahead. — Thôi, không cần chê bai nữa. Nếu mày biết làm tốt hơn thì làm đi.
(Lịch sử) Ban công cao tại các tòa nhà công cộng như nhà hát mà khách da đen chỉ có phép ngồi trên tầng này.^[2]

Đồng nghĩa sửa

ban công cao dành cho người khách da đen

nigger gallery (cũ; thô tục)
nigger heaven (cũ; thô tục)

Từ liên hệ sửa

Tham khảo sửa

▲ Nancy Baggett (2001) The All-American Cookie Book‎^[1] (bằng tiếng Anh), Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, tr. 235:
Peanuts have never gotten much respect in America. Their reputation is better than it once was, but if something is ‘worth peanuts,’ we know it’s trifling. Perhaps the root of the problem — so to speak — was that peanuts were first introduced to America by African slaves. During the Civil War, when food supplies were scarce, both Union and Confederate troops started eating these legumes out of necessity, and goobers gradually caught on. By 1870, P. T. Barnum’s vendors were hawking peanuts at his circus. Soon, they were also sold in theaters, where the cheap seats became known as ‘peanut galleries.’
▲ Stuart Berg Flexner (1982) Listening to America: An Illustrated History of Words and Phrases from Our Lively and Splendid Past‎^[2] (bằng tiếng Anh), Simon và Schuster, →ISBN, tr. 438: “Peanut gallery was in use in the 1880s, as a synonym for nigger gallery (1840s) or nigger heaven (1870s), the upper balcony where blacks sat, as in segregated theaters.”

[AACB-1] ▲ Nancy Baggett (2001) The All-American Cookie Book‎^[1] (bằng tiếng Anh), Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, tr. 235:
Peanuts have never gotten much respect in America. Their reputation is better than it once was, but if something is ‘worth peanuts,’ we know it’s trifling. Perhaps the root of the problem — so to speak — was that peanuts were first introduced to America by African slaves. During the Civil War, when food supplies were scarce, both Union and Confederate troops started eating these legumes out of necessity, and goobers gradually caught on. By 1870, P. T. Barnum’s vendors were hawking peanuts at his circus. Soon, they were also sold in theaters, where the cheap seats became known as ‘peanut galleries.’

[LtA-2] ▲ Stuart Berg Flexner (1982) Listening to America: An Illustrated History of Words and Phrases from Our Lively and Splendid Past‎^[2] (bằng tiếng Anh), Simon và Schuster, →ISBN, tr. 438: “Peanut gallery was in use in the 1880s, as a synonym for nigger gallery (1840s) or nigger heaven (1870s), the upper balcony where blacks sat, as in segregated theaters.”

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