I haven't the foggiest.

每天上去看看吧，有幾句話很難從字面上了解其意思。如"The penny dropped." "I've had it up to here." "She thinks she's the cat's whiskers/pajamas."



對話

Romola:Do you remember when we went on the Caribbean cruise last year?
羅莫拉:你記得我們去年坐船遊加勒比海嗎？
Martin:Yes, of course. Fantastic. The snorkeling was great.
馬丁:當然記得。真有趣。用呼吸管潛水，好玩極了。
Romola:And visited that garden in Jamaica where they had some really beautiful flowers.
羅莫拉:我們還去牙買加一個花園參觀，那裡有些花真的很漂亮。
Martin:I can just about remember that.
馬丁:這個我只有一點模糊印象。
Romola:Well what was the name of that really gorgeous pink flower with the lovely scent?
羅莫拉:有一種很美、粉紅色的花，芳香撲鼻，叫什麼名字？
Martin:I haven't the foggiest. You know I'm not interested in flowers. Try putting “Jamaican flowers” into Google.
馬丁:我一點頭緒都沒有。你也知道我對花沒有興趣。把「牙買加花卉」輸入Google看看吧。


多學一點點 茫無頭緒

羅莫拉問馬丁一種花的名稱，馬丁說：I haven't the foggiest。Foggy原義是「濃霧的」，可引申解作「模糊的」，例如：I had only a foggy idea of what I had to do（我只有模糊的概念知道自己要做什麼）。Not to have the foggiest即not to have the foggiest idea/notion（一點都不知道）的口語說法，foggiest可改為faintest（最模糊的）、remotest（最遙遠的、最微小的）或slightest（最小的），例如："Would he agree to our plan?" "I haven't the faintest (idea)."（「他會贊成我們的計劃嗎？」「我完全不知道。」）。

把常用語的一些字略去，是英文頗為常見的現象。讀者都會懂得的o'clock（Ｘ點鐘），就是of the clock的縮寫；goodbye（再見）則是God be with ye（上帝與你們同在）的縮寫：古英文ye等於you或「你們」。此外，not to have an earthly chance（一點機會都沒有）口頭上往往也略作not to have an earthly，例如：He wouldn't have an earthly if he tried to go it alone（假如他要獨力去做，一點成功機會都沒有）。Not to have the foggiest有兩個常見的同義說法：have no idea和not to have a clue。Clue是「線索」。I haven't a clue/I have no idea why she divorced her husband即「我完全不知道她為什麼跟丈夫離婚」。

最後談談snorkeling。Snorkel是潛水用的呼吸管，一端接連潛水者的嘴巴，一端則露出水面，以供呼吸。用呼吸管潛水，叫snorkeling，跟背著氧氣瓶潛水(scuba diving)不同。