英语词汇fight like kilkenny cats的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

fight like Kilkenny cats. During the Irish rebellion or revo- lution of 1798, Hessian mercenaries stationed in Kilkenny amused themselves by tying two cats by their tails and throw- ing them over a clothesline to fight to the death. Just before an officer interrupted their banned “sport” unexpectedly one day, a quick-thinking trooper reportedly cut off the two tails and let the cats escape, telling the colonel that the soldiers had nothing to do with the fight—the two cats had just devoured each other except for the tails. The above tale may have inspired the ex- pression to fight like Kilkenny cats, to fight bitterly until the end. But another story has it that two Kilkenny cats fought so fero- ciously in a sandpit that they devoured each other except for their tails. And still another yarn has a thousand fabled Kilken- ny cats fighting an all-night battle with a thousand cats selected by “sportsmen” from all over Ireland, the tough Kilkenny cats killing them all. Most authorities go along with Jonathan Swift, who, more conservatively, prefers the explanation that cats in the phrase refers to men. It seems that in the 17th century resi- dents of Englishtown and Irishtown in Kilkenny—which was bisected by a stream—were constantly fighting over boundary lines and were compared to battling cats. But nobody has of- fered convincing proof for any of these stories.

词汇	fight like kilkenny cats
词源	fight like Kilkenny cats. During the Irish rebellion or revo- lution of 1798, Hessian mercenaries stationed in Kilkenny amused themselves by tying two cats by their tails and throw- ing them over a clothesline to fight to the death. Just before an officer interrupted their banned “sport” unexpectedly one day, a quick-thinking trooper reportedly cut off the two tails and let the cats escape, telling the colonel that the soldiers had nothing to do with the fight—the two cats had just devoured each other except for the tails. The above tale may have inspired the ex- pression to fight like Kilkenny cats, to fight bitterly until the end. But another story has it that two Kilkenny cats fought so fero- ciously in a sandpit that they devoured each other except for their tails. And still another yarn has a thousand fabled Kilken- ny cats fighting an all-night battle with a thousand cats selected by “sportsmen” from all over Ireland, the tough Kilkenny cats killing them all. Most authorities go along with Jonathan Swift, who, more conservatively, prefers the explanation that cats in the phrase refers to men. It seems that in the 17th century resi- dents of Englishtown and Irishtown in Kilkenny—which was bisected by a stream—were constantly fighting over boundary lines and were compared to battling cats. But nobody has of- fered convincing proof for any of these stories.
随便看	venice glass venice of the north venison veni vidi vici venom vent one-s spleen venus de milo etc venus flytrap venus mercenaria venus-s looking-glass etc verbed verbicide verb sap verdigris verdi verdi verme vermicelli vermilion vermin vermont vermont charity vermont psalm vernacular vernier vernier caliper etc