英语词汇kowtow的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

词汇	kowtow
词源	kowtow. The Chinese k’-o-t’ou, which we spell kowtow (rhymes with “know how”), means “knock your head”—that is, to kneel and bow before a superior by touching the floor with your forehead. The Mandarins required the k’-o-t’ou of their “inferiors,” and adventurers in China at the turn of the century brought back the word if not the practice. To kowtow to some- one has come to mean to show obsequious behavior, everything but banging one’s head on the floor.
随便看	ton of bricks ton of cobblestone tontine tonto tonton macoutes tony too big for one-s breeches too high for picking cotton too lazy to work and too nervous to steal too many cooks spoil the broth too many irons in the fire too much of a good thing too old to cut the mustard too poor to paint and too proud to whitewash to oppose preston and his mastiffs toothache tree tooth and nail too thick to drink and too thin to plow tooth-jumping toothwalker tootle-oo toots tootsie roll to paint a house to pan

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