其实在英语中，dog days专门来形容北半球7、8月这段最热的天气。

据韦氏词典，dog days即指7月初到9月初，北半球天气闷热潮湿的这段时间：

the period between early July and early September when the hot sultry weather of summer usually occurs in the northern hemisphere

sultry [ˈsʌltri]：闷热潮湿的

hemisphere [ˈhemɪsfɪr]：半球

也有人开玩笑说，这段时间的天气把狗都热得趴在地上直喘气，所以就叫dog days了。

THE “DOG DAYS,” I always thought, were those summer days so devastatingly hot that even dogs would lie around on the asphalt, panting.

devastatingly [ˈdevəsteɪtɪŋli]：破坏性地

asphalt [ˈæsfɔːlt]：沥青；柏油

pant：气喘，喘息

但其实，这个有趣的表达与天狼星 古希腊人认为大犬座 The ancient Greeks thought of the constellation Canis Major as a dog chasing Lepus, the hare. The star Sirius is the dog’s nose; the Greeks called it the “dog star.”

古希腊人和古罗马人曾迷信地认为，7月末，当天狼星 To the Greeks and Romans, the “dog days” occurred around the day when Sirius appeared to rise just before the sun, in late July. They referred to these days as the hottest time of the year, a period that could bring fever, or even catastrophe

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