| 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. |