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Dear John Letter 曾经引起新闻组几个同志的关注,以下是利用GOOGLE搜索到的Dear John Letter 起源的文章。
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搜到了一篇更详细的解释,不过是英文的:
http://www.wendy.com/letterwriting/dearjohn.html


Origin of the Dear John Letter
Copyright ? Wendy Russ
I received a letter asking me what the origin of the "Dear John Letter" was.
I scoured the Internet looking for some clues as to where the expression
came from. I couldn't find anything except what everyone knows... that it's
an expression used for a particular type of letter written by a woman to a
man in order to break up with him.
I'm lucky to have a strong network of "Know-It-Alls" (KIAs) that will
indulge my frequent curiosities. I asked my friend Lunaea if she knew
because she knows a ton of stuff about language and words and grammar (if
you need a copy editor, she's your gal). She patched me through quickly to
her own personal "KIA Network" and we had some success from someone there.

Anne (eadon@earthlink.net) had this to say:

"Yes, it is a war reference, and I checked with the ever-trusty OED on this
one. It looks like it's WWII, more than likely; although I suspect the name
'John' here has a double meaning — first it's slang for penis, and also
there's that 1917 song "Over There" (Geo. Cohan) with its refrain 'Johnnie
get your gun', which would make the name John mean, among the thousand other
things it stands for, a soldier..."

She sites the following Oxford English Dictionary references:

1945 Democrat & Chron. (Rochester, N.Y.) 17 Aug. 17/2: 'Dear John,' the
letter began. 'I have found someone else whom I think the world of. I think
the only way out is for us to get a divorce,' it said. They usually began
like that, those letters that told of infidelity on the part of the wives of
servicemen... The men called them 'Dear Johns'.

1947 Amer. Speech XXII. 187: It was a 'Dear John'. Quite a lot of the
fellows had already had their 'Dear Johns'.

1957 W. CAMP Prospects of Love xvi. 103: There was a note from Fenny on the
kitchen table. For the moment he enjoyed the irony of thinking it might be
what the Americans called a 'dearjohn'.

1964 J. PHILIPS Laughter Trap (1965) I. ii. 13: Peter..had gone to war..in
love with a girl named Elizabeth Schofield... He had received a 'Dear John'
letter from Elizabeth, telling him she was married...

1971 Guardian 7 Jan. 11/8: The going is getting distinctively gritty for Pan
Am, so much so that 1,876 of its staff are now walking round with a new year
'Dear John' from... the airline's president.


For your amusement, some "Dear John" links:
 a.. Cupid's Fun Stuff Template
 b.. Do-it-yourself Dear John Letter
 c.. Dear John, a story from Vietnam


-----------------------------
衣人  dvador@sina.com.cn

 http://www.iselong.com

万千英语族 英语爱好者的家园
-----------------------------
<衣人> 写入消息新闻:A921.1050234926.17713@news.webking.com.cn...
> 有典故。
>
> 如果没有记错的话,这个ALLUSION应该是起源于第2次世界大战期间。
>
> 这里John 应该有两层意思:
> 1.a slang for penis;
> 2.soldier (当时有一首非常有名的歌中唱到 “Johnnie get your gun”,这样就用
> JOHN来指代“大兵”)。
>
> 由于连年的战争,夫妻两地分居。不少士兵收到家乡妻子或者未婚妻的绝交信。
>
> Dear John Letter 指代的是女子写给男子的“绝交信”。
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> -----------------------------
> 衣人  dvador@sina.com.cn
>
>  http://www.iselong.com
>
> 万千英语族 英语爱好者的家园
> -----------------------------
> 写入消息新闻:A921.1050230246.17675@news.webking.com.cn...
> > I got a ""Dear John"" letter from her.她给了我一封绝交信
> >
> >
>
>

 
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