to be not as green as one is cabbage-looking

to be not as green as one is cabbage-looking

この熟語は

「見かけほど莫迦じゃない」

ことを示す。

ジョイスの『ユリシーズ』に用例がある。

・Gob, he's not as green as he's cabbagelooking. Arsing around from one pub to another.
うぬ、あいつは青臭くねえ、キャベツみたくは。パブからパブへとほっつきまわりやがる。

cabbage head や単に cabbage で

「まぬけ、ばか、あほ、ぼんくら」

を指すことから生まれた表現。

一八七〇年にマーク・トウェインが

this human cabbage

「この人間キャベツ」

と記して、キャベツを

野菜・植物以外の意味で用いている。

to be not as green as one is cabbage-looking

1922, “to be not as simple or stupid as one might be supposed so,” in James Joyce’s Ulysses: "Gob, he's not as green as he's cabbagelooking. Arsing around from one pub to another."

     In 1870, Mark Twain wrote “human cabbage” implying a “brainless person.”
     Cabbage, or cabbage head, in a derogatory sense, is a “simple or stupid person.”

➡cabbage