美国内战时士兵俚语,词源不详。可能改写自 shebeen,简易棚屋搭建的非法售酒处,或来自 法语 chabane,棚屋,小木屋,词源同 cabin.或纯属拟声构词,模仿用木头临时搭建的屋子嘎 吱嘎吱的声音,比较 bang,击打声。常见于习语 the whole shebang,全部家当,一切。
英文词源
shebang (n.)
1862, "hut, shed, shelter," popularized among soldiers in the U.S. Civil War, but like other Civil War slang (such as skedaddle) of uncertain origin. Perhaps an alteration of shebeen (q.v.), but shebang in the sense "tavern," a seemingly necessary transitional sense, is not attested before 1878 and shebeen seems to have been not much used in the U.S. Bartlett's 1877 edition describes it as "A strange word that had its origin during the late civil war. It is applied alike to a room, a shop, or a hut, a tent, a cabin; an engine house." Phrase the whole shebang first recorded 1869, but relation to the earlier use of the word is obscure. Either or both senses also might be mangled pronunciations of French char-à-banc, a bus-like wagon with many seats. For an older guess:
[Shebang] used even yet by students of Yale College and elsewhere to designate their rooms, or a theatrical or other performance in a public hall, has its origin probably in a corruption of the French cabane, a hut, familiar to the troops that came from Louisiana, and constantly used in the Confederate camp for the simple huts, which they built with such alacrity and skill for their winter quarters. The constant intercourse between the outposts soon made the term familiar to the Federal army also. ["Americanisms: The English of the New World," Maximillian Schele De Vere, New York, Charles Scribner & Co., 1872.]
实用例句
1. I'm sick of the whole shebang.
我对整个这件事发腻了.
来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
2. The whole shebang smells sort of fishy to me.
整个事情使我觉得有点蹊跷.
来自互联网
3. Module shebang paper and mounted hinges from the device.