honest-to-john是什么意思?

Question

honest-to-john是什么意思?

Answer 1

绝对的诚实
John 和Pete是圣经里的St.John 和St.Peter
还有说法是honest-to-god 1913年出现
honest-to-john是1950年出现
honest-to-goodness1916年出现
下面的引言里有最早文学作品中出现的例子.
HONEST TO PETE meaning real(ly),genuine(ly),true and truly,the complete and utter truth,I swear this is true,you can take my word for it,are synonymous with HONEST TO JOHN and HONEST TO GOODNESS and HONEST TO GOD,where 'John,' 'Pete' (possibly short for St.Peter and St.John),and 'goodness' are euphemisms for 'God.' These assertions of veracity date from the early 1900s.One might have suspected that these expressions would have appeared earlier than that,but I guess vulgarity was more readily accepted in print than blasphemy.It is said that 'honest to God' (1913) appeared first,and the others followed – 'honest to goodness' (1916),'honest to Pete' ),and 'honest to John' in the 1950s.
Another equivalent statement,now considered offensive,is 'honest Injun' (or Indian),dating from the second half of the 1800s and popularized by Mark Twain in 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' and 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.'
引言 Quote:
1913 “HONEST TO GOD,Saxon,he don't like all his horses as much as I like the last hair on the last tail of the scrubbiest of the bunch.”–'Valley of the Moon' by Jack London,I.x>
1916 “The real HONEST-TO-GOODNESS-twelve-months-in-the-year West.”—'Phantom Herd' by BM Bower,ii.page 45>
1918 “The only HONEST-TO-GOD aviator the Americans have ever produced—Raoul Lufbery!”—'Diary' by BM Bower in 'One Man's War' (1929) by Hall & Niles,xxxiv.page 352>
( Facts on File Dictionary of Clichés,Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang,Oxford English Dictionary )