leather and prunella

短语

仅在外表上的差别

释义与例句

n.
  1. 1.

    That which is merely superficial and does not indicate the true nature or value of a person (or thing).

    古体 不可数

    1880, Benjamin Disraeli, letter to Lord Salisbury, cited in Richard Faber, Beaconsfield and Bolingbroke, London: Faber and Faber, 1961, p. 19, […] I have been profoundly convinced that the greatness and character of this country depended on our landed tenure. All the rest I look upon, and have ever looked upon, as leather and prunella.

词源

With reference to leather and prunella (materials used for making shoes and apparel), from a passage in Alexander Pope’s 1734 poem “An Essay on Man”: “What differ more (you cry) than Crown and Cowl?” / I’ll tell you, Friend: a wise Man and a Fool. / You’ll find, if once the Monarch acts the Monk, / Or Cobler-like the Parson will be drunk, / Worth makes the Man, and want of it the Fellow, / The rest is all but Leather or Prunello.

来源：wiktionary