漲知識：13個讓你看不懂的英文習語的起源

To "fly by the seats of your pants," or improvise without a clear plan, was popularized after Douglas Corrigan's 29-hour flight from Brooklyn to Dublin in 1938.
“讓屁股蛋來引領飛行方向”（fly by the seats of your pants），即沒有清晰計劃只憑感覺做事。1938年道格拉斯?科里根從布魯克林飛行了29個小時到都柏林，隨后這一短語便流行起來。

The phrase was used in a 1938 headline in The Edwardsville Intelligencer to describe Corrigan’s off-book flight. He was meant to fly to California, but diverted his plane to Dublin instead.
1938年，《愛德華茲維爾訊報》的頭條標題使用的就是這個短語，來形容科里根這次計劃外的飛行。他本來要飛到加利福尼亞，可卻掉頭去了都柏林。

"Corrigan had filed for a transatlantic flight two days earlier but it was rejected because his plane was not considered fit for the job," the researchers wrote. "Upon landing in Dublin he claimed his compass had packed up."
“兩天前科里根提交了飛越大西洋的申請，但是被拒絕了，因為他的飛機被認為不適宜進行這樣的任務，”研究員寫道，“到了都柏林一著陸，他就說他的指南針壞了”。

One mechanic said Corrigan "flies by the seat of his pants," which was said to be an old flying expression for going aloft without instruments or radio.
一位機械師說科里根“讓屁股蛋來引領飛行方向”，這是一個古老的飛行用語，用來指代不憑借任何儀器或無線電的飛行。