英语词汇well-heeled的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

well-heeled. Before well-heeled meant “well provided with money” in American slang, it meant “well provided with weap- ons.” Back in frontier days men who went “heeled” carried a gun, the expression apparently deriving from a cockfighting term meaning to provide a fighting cock with an artificial spur before he went into the pit. Well-heeled is recorded in this sense as early as 1867 and it wasn’t until over a decade later that it took on the meaning it has today, perhaps because men found that it was easier and safer to protect themselves with money than with guns. In any case, well-heeled is not simply the oppo- site of down at the heels, someone so hard pressed for money that his shoes are run down at the heels. Down at the heels may even be traced back to Shakespeare, who wrote in King Lear (1600): “A good man’s fortune may grow out at the heels.”

词汇	well-heeled
词源	well-heeled. Before well-heeled meant “well provided with money” in American slang, it meant “well provided with weap- ons.” Back in frontier days men who went “heeled” carried a gun, the expression apparently deriving from a cockfighting term meaning to provide a fighting cock with an artificial spur before he went into the pit. Well-heeled is recorded in this sense as early as 1867 and it wasn’t until over a decade later that it took on the meaning it has today, perhaps because men found that it was easier and safer to protect themselves with money than with guns. In any case, well-heeled is not simply the oppo- site of down at the heels, someone so hard pressed for money that his shoes are run down at the heels. Down at the heels may even be traced back to Shakespeare, who wrote in King Lear (1600): “A good man’s fortune may grow out at the heels.”
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