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"Keeping up with the Joneses" is an idiom in many parts of the English-speaking world referring to the comparison to one's neighbor as a benchmark for social class or the accumulation of material goods. To fail to "keep up with the Joneses" is perceived as demonstrating socio-economic or cultural inferiority. ==Origins== The phrase was popularized when a comic strip of the same name was created by cartoonist Arthur R. "Pop" Momand.〔Robert Hendrickson, ''The Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins''.〕 The strip debuted in 1913, distributed by Associated Newspapers. The strip ran in American newspapers for 26 years, and was eventually adapted into books, films, and musical comedies. The "Joneses" of the title were neighbors of the strip's main characters, unseen characters often spoken of but never actually seen in person.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Stripper's Guide )〕 In the 1936 book, ''The Next 100 Years'', Clifford C. Furnas noted: "Keeping with the Joneses" descended from the spreading of the peacock's tail.〔Furnas, C. C., ''The Next 100 Years''. Reynal and Hitchcock. Book. 1936〕 American humorist Mark Twain made an allusion to Smith and Jones families with regard to social custom in the essay "Corn Pone Opinions," written in 1901 but first published in 1923. "The outside influences are always pouring in upon us, and we are always obeying their orders and accepting their verdicts. The Smiths like the new play; the Joneses go to see it, and they copy the Smith verdict."〔Mark Twain, ("Corn Pone Opinions" )〕 An alternative explanation is that the Joneses of the saying refer to the wealthy family of Edith Wharton's father, the Joneses. The Jones were a prominent New York family with substantial interests in Chemical Bank as a result of marrying the daughters of the bank's founder, John Mason. The Jones and other rich New Yorkers began to build country villas in the Hudson Valley around Rhinecliff and Rhinebeck, which had belonged to the Livingstons, another prominent New York family to whom the Jones were related. The houses became grander and grander. In 1853 Elizabeth Schermerhorn Jones built a 24-room gothic villa called Wyndcliffe described by Henry Winthrop Sargent in 1859 as being very fine in the style of a Scottish castle, but by Edith Wharton, Elizabeth's niece, as a gloomy monstrosity. The villa reportedly spurred more building, including a house by William B. Astor (married to a Jones cousin), a phenomenon described as "keeping up with the Joneses". The phrase is also associated with another of Edith Wharton's aunts, Mary Mason Jones, who built a large mansion at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, then undeveloped. Wharton portrays her affectionately in ''The Age of Innocence'' as Mrs. Manson Mingott, "calmly waiting for fashion to flow north". A slightly different version is that the phrase refers to the grand lifestyle of the Joneses who by the mid-century were numerous and wealthy, thanks to the Chemical Bank and Mason connection. It was their relation Mrs William Backhouse Astor, Jr who began the "patriarchs balls", the origin of "The Four Hundred", the list of the society elite who were invited. By then the Joneses were being eclipsed by the massive wealth of the Astors, Vanderbilts and others but the four hundred list published in 1892 contained many of the Jones and their relations—old money still mattered. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Keeping up with the Joneses」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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