英语词汇upset the apple cart的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

upset the apple cart. Just as Shakespeare improved the an- cient curse son of a bitch by making it son and heir of a mongrel bitch, some anonymous English wit in the late 18th century transformed an old Roman phrase into upset the apple cart. The Roman expression Perii, plaustrum perculi (“I am undone, I have upset my cart”) meant the same thing, “to ruin carefully laid plans,” and might have been changed by some schoolboy who translated the line from Plautus’s Epidicus. Why the Ro- mans didn’t think of using a specific fruit in the expression to make it more graphic is a mystery. They certainly knew all about apples; in fact, the famous French api variety of apple (our “Red Lady”) is named after the legendary Roman gour- met Apicius, who is said to have produced it by grafting.

词汇	upset the apple cart
词源	upset the apple cart. Just as Shakespeare improved the an- cient curse son of a bitch by making it son and heir of a mongrel bitch, some anonymous English wit in the late 18th century transformed an old Roman phrase into upset the apple cart. The Roman expression Perii, plaustrum perculi (“I am undone, I have upset my cart”) meant the same thing, “to ruin carefully laid plans,” and might have been changed by some schoolboy who translated the line from Plautus’s Epidicus. Why the Ro- mans didn’t think of using a specific fruit in the expression to make it more graphic is a mystery. They certainly knew all about apples; in fact, the famous French api variety of apple (our “Red Lady”) is named after the legendary Roman gour- met Apicius, who is said to have produced it by grafting.
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