美语词汇掌故第 46 课：Green: More Than Just a Color-1Green is an important color in nature. It is the color of grass and the leaves on trees. It is also the color of most growing plants.
Sometimes, the word green means young, fresh and growing. Sometimes, it describes something that is not yet ripe or finished.
For example, a greenhorn is someone who has no expereince, who is new to a situation.
In the fifteenth century, a greenhorn was a young cow or ox whose horns had not yet developed.
A century or so later, a greenhorn was a soldier who had not yet had any experience in battle.
By the eighteenth century, a greenhorn had the meaning it has today - a person who is new in a job.
About one hundred years ago, greenhorn was a popular expression in the American west.
Old-timers used it to describe a man who had just arrived from one of the big cities back east.
The greenhorn lacked the skills he would need to live in the hard, rough country.
Someone who has the ability to grow plants well is said to have a green thumb. The expression comes from the early nineteen hundreds.
