英语说－－声名狼籍／名声扫地／声败名裂

有一天，Jay Leno上街做节目，随意问路人几个slangs的意思和来源。我发现好些美国‘原住民’答非所问，心里平衡许多，自信大增。

Jay Leno还非常好心地提醒一壮丁：Your fly is open. 此男无比从容地在镜头前把‘门’关上。服了。

问题1： His name is Mudd.

老美朋友简单告诉我该slang与林肯有关，亦可说：His name is mud 。

查‘Cliches’，却与林肯无关：

One's name is mud------One is discredited. This term appparently originated in the British Parliament in the early nineteenth century, when it was used for any member who disgraced himself, through either a singularly bad speech or an overwhelming defeat in an election. (In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries' mud' was slang for 'a fool' or 'a stupid fellow.') In time, however, the meaning became milder, simply denoting that someone had made a bad mistake.

今天看了从国内带来的‘最新实用英语典故词典－－张向阳’一书，该词条真与林肯有关。

源自美国历史事件。 1865年美国总统林肯在华盛顿戏院看戏，约翰-威尔克斯-步思刺杀林肯之后，从包厢跳下舞台，摔伤了腿，他在同伴的接应下，逃到马里兰州，被送到塞缪尔-A-默德医生家治疗。后来联邦追捕的士兵抓获布思，将其处死。而默德医生因给凶手治疗被作为同谋犯被判无期徒刑。在服刑期间，黄热病蔓延，默德救了许多狱警和囚犯的生命，并因此获特赦出狱。但是美国人民仍不原谅他，认为他的名字也是可憎的。后来 one's name is Mudd 就表示某人‘声名狼籍／声败名裂’，亦作 one's name is mud。

John Wilkes Booth broke his leg while escaping after shooting Abraham Lincoln in 1865. He was given medical help by Dr Samuel Mudd, who didn't then know about the assassination. Mudd was convicted of being Booth's conspirator, although he is widely believed to have been innocent. Actually, whether Mudd was innocent or not is of little consequence in regard to the origin of this phrase. It was in general circulation before Lincoln was assassinated. This comes from John Badcock's (aka 'J. Bee’) Slang - A dictionary of the turf etc., 1823:

"Mud - a stupid twaddling fellow. ‘And his name is mud!’ ejaculated upon the conclusion of a silly oration, or of a leader in the Courier."

My name's mud in the office after what happened today.
今天的事情发生后，我在办公室里的名声就臭了。