英语词汇walls have ears的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

walls have ears. Some walls really did have ears. Dionysius, the Greek tyrant of Syracuse (430–367 b.c.), had a narrow tube inserted from his palace room to the walls of the prison below so that he could overhear the prisoners—and the lis- tening post that he put his ear to in his wall was even shaped like a human ear. In the 16th century Catherine de Médicis, queen of France’s Henry II, is said to have had several rooms in the Louvre constructed similarly, so she could overhear any plots against her. In any event, the expression the walls have ears, meaning “you’d better take care, there are spies eve- rywhere,” is an old one, first recorded in English in 1620 and probably dating back much further. The ears have walls is a recent twist on the old phrase, meaning that some people, es- pecially those in authority, are incapable of listening. It was coined in the late 1960s.

词汇	walls have ears
词源	walls have ears. Some walls really did have ears. Dionysius, the Greek tyrant of Syracuse (430–367 b.c.), had a narrow tube inserted from his palace room to the walls of the prison below so that he could overhear the prisoners—and the lis- tening post that he put his ear to in his wall was even shaped like a human ear. In the 16th century Catherine de Médicis, queen of France’s Henry II, is said to have had several rooms in the Louvre constructed similarly, so she could overhear any plots against her. In any event, the expression the walls have ears, meaning “you’d better take care, there are spies eve- rywhere,” is an old one, first recorded in English in 1620 and probably dating back much further. The ears have walls is a recent twist on the old phrase, meaning that some people, es- pecially those in authority, are incapable of listening. It was coined in the late 1960s.
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