| 释义 |
don't come the raw prawn
do not attempt to dupe me AUSTRALIA
Military slang from World War 2. The literal meaning of this phrase has not been satisfactorily explained. “Prawn” has been used in Australia since C19 to mean “fool”, so a “raw prawn” could mean a “naive fool”, and if “come” is to be understood as “to act the part of”’, the phrase would imply trying to dupe someone by feigned ignorance. Some have defined “raw prawn” as “something far-fetched, difficult to swallow”; if this is so, then “come” would mean “perpetrate”, which is also possible. Simes (A Dictionary of Australian Underworld Slang, 1993) conjectures a link with “prawn” meaning “penis” but it is hard to see how this could be so.- MAC: I heard the Crab say the Colonel said there was only eight goin’ a week and that Andy and me was one of the first eight. OT: Don’t come the raw prawn. What does the Crab know, and anyhow you don’t think he’d tell you, do you? — Sumner Locke Elliott, Rusty Bugles, p. 27, 1948
- You know what I mean. Eh? Don’t come the raw prawn with me! — J.E. MacDonnell, Don’t Gimme the Ships, p. 59, 1960
- Don’t come the raw prawn! I only gave her a bit of a smack on the chops, we didn’t get around to the fair dinkum article! — Barry Humphries, The Wonderful World of Barry McKenzie, p. 12, 1968
- Don’t come the raw prawn with me either or I’ll drop ya you pommy drongo. — The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, 1972
- COME THE RAW PRAWN: Act nastily or demur from an original agreement. — Jim Ramsay, Cop It Sweet!, p. 24, 1977
- Come on, Dimitri, don’t come the raw prawn love! Four quid’s the price. I already knocked off a quid, cause I liked the look of yer. — Lance Peters, The Dirty Half-Mile, p. 155, 1979
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