To buy a pig in a poke 字面意思是"購買了自己根本看不到的東西"(to buy something which you cannot see)，引申為"買了自己對其真實性能一點都不熟悉的東西"(to buy something whose true nature is unknown)。《紐約時報雜志》1992年曾用過這個諺語："What did he [sc. President Bush] think about Ross Perot as a candidate for President? There's 'too much at stake, as we say here, to buy a pig in a poke'".
Buy a pig in a poke這里的poke和我們所常用的做動詞用的poke可不是一回事,我們這里討論的poke來自法語，一直以來就只有"小袋或小口袋"的意思。Poke的這種用法最早見于13世紀。不過這種用法也只出現在蘇格蘭、美國南部某些州的英語中，其它地方（除了出現在諺語當中）就很少見到了。
Buy a pig in a poke這個短語在法語和德語中都有類似的表達，例如法語中acheter chat en poche ("to buy a cat in a pocket")和德語中die Katze im Sack kaufen ("to buy a cat in a sack")，它們和英語中的buy a pig in a poke是相同的意思。
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