Please help me unserstand some phrases, thanks a million!
Recently, I read an excerpt and got confussed by some expression, The first one is that what is the meaning of "debts and debts". the original sentence is as followed "For the first time in her life she entered into reasonings and explanations with him, thinking to be able to convince him by pointing out to him that there are debts and debts, and that there is a great difference between a prince and a coachmaker. " the background why she did so is that the man refuse to pay the debts for her, he is her husband. The second expression is "Wandering Jew", the third one is "the philosopher's stone" is there any story about the last two expression. I will be very much grateful if you could lend me a hand.I have another question now,what is the meaning of the abbreviation "St."? beside the meaning for"state and street". Is there any other meaning, in the essay, the man is called Count St.Germain. Three words are capitalized, but I can not find the translation in the Dictionary OF English Name.:(

Question

Please help me unserstand some phrases, thanks a million!
Recently, I read an excerpt and got confussed by some expression, The first one is that what is the meaning of "debts and debts". the original sentence is as followed "For the first time in her life she entered into reasonings and explanations with him, thinking to be able to convince him by pointing out to him that there are debts and debts, and that there is a great difference between a prince and a coachmaker. " the background why she did so is that the man refuse to pay the debts for her, he is her husband. The second expression is "Wandering Jew", the third one is "the philosopher's stone" is there any story about the last two expression. I will be very much grateful if you could lend me a hand.I have another question now,what is the meaning of the abbreviation "St."? beside the meaning for"state and street". Is there any other meaning, in the essay, the man is called Count St.Germain. Three words are capitalized, but I can not find the translation in the Dictionary OF English Name.:(

Answer

St. is an abbreviation for "Saint."  It is not saying he is a saint, but in the past it was used in names of cities and towns, and then became people's last names.  A "count" is lower rank of nobility, so "Count St. Germain" is the Count of St. Germain.  Presumably, St. Germain is a town or city that he owns part of (or however nobility works).

Also, just a note on the phrase "there are debts and debts." In speech, the second "debts" would usually be spoken with emphasis, and sometimes in writing, it would be emphasized with italics.

Answer

Firstly, `there are debts and debts` means that there are different types and values of things you may owe to others. For example I could do a friend a favour, go to the shops for him, lend him my car, things of no real cost to me but he is in my debt or I could borrow a million pounds from someone and then I have a huge debt. The word debt basically means an obligation owed by a person or person, it does not place a value on that.

Wandering Jew: This goes back to biblical times when a Jew taunted Jesus on his way to the crucifixion and was then cursed to walk the world until the `second coming`. This Jew became legendary during the 13th century throughout Europe.

The Philosopher`s Stone: Another legend about the existence of something ( an alchemical substance ) that could turn inexpensive metals into gold or silver

Answer

By "there are debts and debts", she means that there are different kinds of debts.  A teacher might say that there are students and students, meaning there are good students and bad.
For wandering Jew see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wandering_Jew
For philosopher's stone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopher's_stone

Answers · 6

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