| 词组 | bar sinister |
| 释义 | bar sinister In 1903 the prolific writer Richard Harding Davis published a novel titled The Bar Sinister. Its publication created a bit of controversy in the press over the correctness of the term bar sinister. The press clippings in our file concerning this affair are lengthy explanations of heraldic terminology. Bierce 1909 put it much more succinctly: "There is no such thing in heraldry as a bar sinister." Maybe there is not one in heraldry, but there is one in English literature. Bar sinister seems to have been introduced by Sir Walter Scott in Quentin Durward, 1823, as a heraldic charge that was a mark of bastardy. A couple of sources opine that Scott might have picked up the term from French, in which language barre means "bend sinister," which is a band running from the lower left to the upper right on a coat of arms. Bierce assumed that the bar in bar sinister was a misuse for bend—a bar is a horizontal line in heraldry and a bend a diagonal one. That may be true; however, bend sinister has nothing to do with bastardy. The sinister terms that do have to do with bastardy are baton sinister and bendlet sinister. If you are interested in distinguishing these terms, you need not seek out a book on heraldry; Reader's Digest 1983 covers this matter pretty thoroughly. But it was Scott's bar sinister that caught the imagination of the public and the novel writer, and it has stayed in use since. As early as 1926 Fowler dismissed its controversial aspects, calling its correction "pedantry" except in technical contexts (and it is not found in technical contexts). Copperud 1980 calls Fowler's advice sensible. So do we. Here are a few examples: • ... how he had started with the initial handicap of the bar sinister, the illegitimate son of a small Ayrshire farmer and a peasant woman —George D. Brown, The House with the Green Shutters, 1911 • ... supported the attempt to erase the bar sinister with which the United Nations had labeled Spain — Harold L. Ickes, New Republic, 6 Feb. 1950 • ... two who claimed a royal bar sinister —Time, 1 Aug. 1955 • ... the destinies of an estate and a fortune are decided by the intervention of a stranger whose connexion with the family is by a bar sinister —Times Literary Supp., 27 Nov. 1969 • In later years [T.E.] Lawrence treated his bastard status lightly, remarking that "bars sinister are rather jolly ornaments." In fact, the bar sinister was a tall hurdle to overcome —James C. Simmons, Passionate Pilgrims, 1987 |
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