sparrowfartとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

Has the folk etymology of being the time of day when the birds (including sparrows) first wake up, and presumably fart.

It has sometimes been thought to have originally been an Australian expression, and 'A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English' by Eric Partridge and Paul Beale does list sparrow's crow as an Australian euphemism. They list sparrow-fart as both daybreak, in colloquial use since before 1910, and popularised during WWI. Also as used in James Joyce's Ulysses meaning an inconsequential person.

It is included in Carr's Craven Dialect (1828) as from Yorkshire, with the definition given as 'break of day', according to Nigel Rees in 'A Word In Your Shell-like'.

Probably originates from an incorrect translation from the Urdu sawayray, meaning early, as used by members of the British Army since time immemorial.

名詞

sparrow-fart

1. (Australian, slang) Very early in the day; dawn.

関連する語

• cockcrow
• crack of dawn
• sunrise
• sunup

引用

• "I was sick of working from sparrow fart as station cook and general dogs-body." No Bed of Roses: Memoirs of a Madam (page 111) by Patti Walkuski (1993) [1]
• "Miss This Miss That Miss Theother lot of sparrowfarts skitting around talkin about politics they know as much about as my backside." Ulysses Episode 18 Penelope by James Joyce (1922).