| 词源 |
turn over a new leaf. The leaf turned over is one from a book not a tree. People have been using the expression, for “reform- ing or amending one’s conduct” for almost 500 years and it re- fers to turning to a blank page in an exercise book where one can begin work afresh, or to a new lesson in a book of precepts. A page of a book is called a leaf, however, because the leaves of certain plants were used as manuscript pages before the inven- tion of paper. Many ancient manuscripts written on palm leaves still survive. |