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Thread: Mothers and manners - idiom?

  1. 05-Nov-2007, 19:14 #1
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    ccarmo
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    Default Mothers and manners - idiom?

    Hi,
    what's the meaning of "we have our mothers and manners"?

    Thank's
    Cmp
  2. 05-Nov-2007, 22:18 #2
    Anglika
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    Default Re: Mothers and manners - idiom?

    Can you give the full context?
  3. 06-Nov-2007, 10:45 #3
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    Default Re: Mothers and manners - idiom?

    "A woman of no Importance" by Oscar Wilde, 2nd act:

    LADY CAROLINE: There are a great many things you havenīt got in America, I am told, Miss Worsley. They say you have no ruins, and no curiosities.

    MRS ALLONBY [to LADY STUTFIELD]: What nonsense! They have their mothers and their manners.



    "mothers", can it be a synonymous of "origins"?

    Thank you for your help.
    Cmp
  4. 06-Nov-2007, 21:06 #4
    Anglika
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    Default Re: Mothers and manners - idiom?

    No - it is a distinctly rude [but witty and typical of Wilde] comment about American mothers and American manners. The first are ruins and the second are curiosities.
    ccarmo likes this.
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