| 释义 |
when it's at home used to intensify any question of identity. A derisive tag implying contempt or incredulity, suffixed to 'what is a.…?'. The earliest usages of this scornful device were grammatically correct: ' [W]here your friends are when they're at home?' (Rudyard Kipling, Plain Tales from the Hills, 1888). Current usage, however, will occasionally reform a sentence that should commence correctly with 'who is…?' by converting the proper noun to object status, e.g. 'What is a John Smith when it's at home?' UK, 1957
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