I'll be a monkey's uncleとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

Origin uncertain; the term monkey’s uncle appears in 19th-century works and may allude to early ideas about what is now called the theory of evolution.^[1] The term may then have gained more currency after the widely publicized 1925 Scopes Trial in Tennessee, United States, in which a high-school teacher was found guilty of having violated a law prohibiting the teaching of human evolution in a state-funded school.

発音

• (Received 発音) IPA^(key): /ˈaɪl biː ə ˈmʌŋkiz ˌʌŋkəl/, /ɑːl-/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɑːl bi ə ˈmʌŋkiz ˌʌŋkəl/
• ハイフネーション: I'll be a mon‧key's un‧cle

成句

I'll be a monkey's uncle

1. (idiomatic) Often preceded by well: expressing complete surprise or disbelief.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:wow

   Well I’ll be a monkey's uncle! I would never have thought that tourists would go into space!

   • 1943, Field and Stream, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, ISSN 0015-0673, OCLC 613418155, page 34:

     "Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle!" Lem said. "I've heerd of rifles with transits on 'em, but I ain't ever seen one. Mind if I look at her?"

   • 1970 February, Tech Engineering News, Cambridge, Mass.: Board of Directors of Tech Engineering News, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ISSN 0040-084X, OCLC 923156411, page 35, column 3:

     Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle, I actually solved that one.

   • 1987, Sholem Aleichem [pseudonym; Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich], “[The Railway Stories] The Happiest Man in All Kodny”, in Hillel Halkin, transl., Tevye the Dairyman and The Railway Stories (Library of Yiddish Classics), New York, N.Y.: Schocken Books, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Schocken Books, [2008?], →ISBN, page 149:

     [...] I made as if to step inside—wham, bang, I'll be a monkey's uncle if he didn't slam the door in my face! What was I supposed to do now? It wasn't exactly a cheerful situation.

   • 2002, Steve Morrill; Michael Saldivar; Dan LaReaux; Michael LaReaux, “The Three Authors’ Tale II”, in The Three Authors’ Tales, Lincoln, Neb.: Writers Club Press, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 40:

     But I know I am better than that. I completed two and a half years at the M.J.C., and I'll be a monkey's uncle if I did it all just to be neglected in some backwoods, drafty, lo-tech, no-glory, never-been-remembered-for-all-the-great-things-I-do, dead end court wizard position.

   • 2008, Carla Hester, chapter 7, in The Adventures of Penelope Plum (Penelope Plum Mysteries), [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 46:

     Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle if it isn't my old pal, Captain Pete. I haven't seen you in years. Good to see you!

   • 2014 October 20, Rosamond Carter, Weatherwood, Bloomington, Ind.: Balboa Press, Hay House, →ISBN, page 252:

     "Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle. That's incredible and …" he was silent working it out, "and that means that I am actually the last of the McNaughtens and now live here in Weatherwood.["]

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