aniaswins
- 2008-04-28
As a native speaker of English, born and educated in America, the saying "I have no brief" is foreign to me. Thanks for being so kind as to explain the term. Just because one is a native speaker doesn't mean that one knows every idiom in the American/British language system. Native speakers know this best of all.
Nspeaker
- 2008-04-25
There is nothing obscure about the phrase "hold no brief". It may have begun as a legal term but is now and has been in general use for all of my lifetime at least (58 years).
The original poster said nothing about a 'beef', and what on earth has a google exact phrase result got to do with it ?. Any well read NS or listener to radio & TV will have heard the phrase a thousand times in it's modern usage. Perhaps you should broaden your scope a little.
As for 'Longdong', it seems you are not aware of the other connotation that the word has, maybe your head has been in the sand too long.
Longdong
- 2008-04-25
I concede that "hold no brief" is a valid, British legal phrase.
Nspeaker, that all 'true native (English) speakers' should be familiar with *obscure, British legal terms is an interesting, if not ridiculous, assertion. As for 'Longdong', if you consider 'Chongqing', 'Wuhan' and other names of cities / towns in China to be silly, then so be it!
Aoyun, apart from the fact that the issue was one of a phrase, not a single word, your word choice in "Too, it is clear that.", clearly indicates that you are not intelligent enough to have entered this discussion.
*A Google exact phrase search of "hold no brief" produced 2,090 results compared to 148,000 results for "have no beef", and 3,470,000 results for "have nothing against".
AMonk
- 2008-04-24
"Having no brief" is a valid English expression. It comes out of the British legal system, where a lawyer accepts money to represent the interests (i.e. "holds a brief") of a client before the Bar (= in Court).
So, if one "holds no brief", then one is not being paid by either side and has no special interest in how any particular matter comes out. One is neutral about the matter at hand.
nspeaker
- 2008-04-24
Longdong, Linguisticus surely meant "I hold no brief". If you are a true native speaker you will be familiar with that legalistic term.
By the way, is the name under which you post boasting, or should we also BE AWARE OF SILLY NAMES ?.
Longdong
- 2008-04-24
linguisticus (a.k.a. Roger)
What exactly does "I have no brief ..." mean?
As a native speaker of English, I am familiar with the expression, "I have no beef with ...", but "I have no brief ...", and many other expressions used by non-native speakers such as yourself, is foreign to me.