when in Rome, do as the Romans do

谚语
中文释义

英文释义

谚语
  1. When situated in a foreign place, it is wise to follow the local customs.
    — […] but, as I seated myself at table, I thought how my friends in Scotland would stare to see stewed monkey, roasted mermaid, and a pepper-pot of macaws, set down on table for their repast. But my plan always has been when in Rome to do as Rome does; and we found our food both delicate and cooked in such a manner, with every savoury spice, that it would have tickled the palate of the most fastidious gastronome.
  2. It is wise to adapt to the circumstances; it is wise to follow common custom. broadly,idiomatic
    — But my friend says, ‘when in Rome, we must do as Rome does,’ Ah! this is the very principle of an ungodly world; and Christians have caught the spirit, and are acting up to it. Peter and Paul were in Rome.—If they had done as Rome did, they would not have suffered death there. If we were in Rome, and must do as Rome does, we must become idolaters, and papists, or lose Rome's favor, and suffer her displeasure. But we must separate ourselves from Rome, and from the world, and their wicked and God-robbing practices. We must not be conformed to the world. We must be Christians in deed and in truth.

词形变化

when in Rome, do as the Romans alternative when in Rome, do like the Romans do alternative

词源

The first attestation is Medieval Latin si fueris Rōmae, Rōmānō vīvitō mōre; si fueris alibī, vīvitō sīcut ibī (“if you should be in Rome, live in the Roman manner; if you should be elsewhere, live as they do there”), which is attributed to St Ambrose (c. 339–397). Robert Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) uses the phrase “When they are at Rome, they doe there as they ſee done.”
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