To buy a pig in a poke 字面意思是"購(gòu)買(mǎi)了自己根本看不到的東西"(to buy something which you cannot see)，引申為"買(mǎi)了自己對(duì)其真實(shí)性能一點(diǎn)都不熟悉的東西"(to buy something whose true nature is unknown)?！都~約時(shí)報(bào)雜志》1992年曾用過(guò)這個(gè)諺語(yǔ)："What did he [sc. President Bush] think about Ross Perot as a candidate for President? There's 'too much at stake, as we say here, to buy a pig in a poke'".
Buy a pig in a poke這里的poke和我們所常用的做動(dòng)詞用的poke可不是一回事,我們這里討論的poke來(lái)自法語(yǔ)，一直以來(lái)就只有"小袋或小口袋"的意思。Poke的這種用法最早見(jiàn)于13世紀(jì)。不過(guò)這種用法也只出現(xiàn)在蘇格蘭、美國(guó)南部某些州的英語(yǔ)中，其它地方（除了出現(xiàn)在諺語(yǔ)當(dāng)中）就很少見(jiàn)到了。
Buy a pig in a poke這個(gè)短語(yǔ)在法語(yǔ)和德語(yǔ)中都有類(lèi)似的表達(dá)，例如法語(yǔ)中acheter chat en poche ("to buy a cat in a pocket")和德語(yǔ)中die Katze im Sack kaufen ("to buy a cat in a sack")，它們和英語(yǔ)中的buy a pig in a poke是相同的意思。
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