APAD: A foregone conclusion

來源: 2025-03-18 08:31:14 [博客] [舊帖] [給我悄悄話] 本文已被閱讀:

Meaning:

   A foregone conclusion is a decision made before the evidence for or against

   it is known. Literally, it is a conclusion which is inevitable because the

   result has been decided beforehand (or `afore').

 

Background:

   From Shakespeare's Othello, 1604:

 

     OTHELLO:

     But this denoted a foregone conclusion:

     `Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream.

 

   What Othello is saying is that he is certain that his wife has been

   unfaithful to him because his dreaming of it signified that it had already

   happened - that is, it was `foregone,' not evidence that would stand up in

   court, but good enough for Othello.

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

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It can take a long time to overcome ideas taken for granted in a different

culture. Westerners, especially those from a Protestant background, try to keep

personal and business lives apart like oil and water, a form of self-protection

just as in China, folks try to mix them up for the same purpose. One thing I learned

here in North America was that cold fishes often do not have anything against me,

contrary to the foregone conclusion I tend to draw just because they appear stiff.