English - The Real Deal

很久以来，我一直以为same difference就是“相同的不同之处”的意思。比如你发现A和B的不同之处，你朋友发现了C和D的不同之处。一对比，你们意识到A与B的不同和C与D的不同是一样的，这就是same difference。

最近看的一本书里接连出现了好几个same difference的例子，但明显不是这种用法。从上下文可以判断出来，same difference就是same thing的意思。摘录其中两个：

A: I can’t make a copy of something from an employee’s file and send it on to the police.
B: Ex-employee.
A: Same difference.

A: Her boyfriend came and picked it up.
B: Ex-boyfriend.
A: Same difference.

查了下资料，找到了满意的答案。推荐阅读全文： The Mavens’ Word of the Day - same difference

最关键部分摘录如下：

The literal meaning is easy. The basic meanings of same, ‘identical to or agreeing with’, and difference, ‘unlikeness; dissimilarity’, are just what you’d expect. But when you use same difference together, you’re not comparing two things; you’re comparing the difference that exists between one pair of things to the difference that exists between one or more other pairs. You’re saying that those differences are analogous.

But the idiomatic use of same difference, which materialized in English in the mid-1940s, is the more interesting one. You can spot the idiom because it’s an interjection–it stands alone. Same difference is a kind of conventionalized, frozen response to what you regard as a petty, irrelevant correction or some niggling distinction. Your answer is a verbal shrug, a signal of your indifference or mild annoyance.

Same difference means ’same thing; no difference’. No one can say for sure how the expression arose, but very likely it was through a blending of those two phrases.

Bonus video: Maroon 5 - Makes Me Wonder

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 3rd, 2007 at 10:23 pm and is filed under Idiom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.