无关紧要

    这个成语的字面解释是“不是这里，也不是那里”。这是什么意思呢？请看对话：

    A: I don’t like my brother’s new girlfriend. She is kind of snobbish.

    B: Your brother loves her. So, your comment — although interesting — is neither here nor there.

    Note: This is a cliche meaning “of no consequence or meaning, irrelevant and immaterial.” This is a 16th century phrase and is first recorded in Arthur Golding’s translation of “The sermons of J. Calvin upon Deuteronomie,” 1583: “True it is that our so doing is neither here nor there (as they say) in respect of God.” But “as they say” in the quotation suggests an earlier origin. It perhaps means “of no consequence either one way or the other.”