Eric Partridge wrote that the saying probably developed in Britain in the eighteen hundreds.

埃里克·帕特里奇(Eric Partridge)写道，这种说法可能起源于19世纪的英国。

Lexicographer Eric Partridge mentions it in his huge dictionary of slang and unconventional English.

词典编纂者Eric Partridge在他的大部头《俚语和非传统英语字典》里提到过这个单词。

By the middle of the century, revered usage writers in Britain such as Eric Partridge and Ernest Gowers were warning of the subjunctive as " a hallmark of officialese" which had " a formal, even pedantic air" .

到本世纪中叶，埃里克·帕特里奇 (Eric Partridge) 和欧内斯特·高尔斯 (Ernest Gowers) 等受人尊敬的英国用法作家警告说，虚拟语气是“官方语言的标志”，具有“正式、甚至迂腐的气息”。