| 词源 |
balled up; balls. Dashing through the snow on a horsedrawn sled could be hazardous in days past. One difficulty was the balls of snow or ice that formed in the curve of a horse’s shoe and often made a horse slip and fall. When horses did fall, es- pecially a team of them, the resulting confusion and entangle- ment gave rise to the expression all balled up. That is almost everybody traces this term for helpless confusion to flounder- ing horses. Mencken suggests a connection with the ejaculation balls! (1890), one for which little proof can be found. A second alternative linking the expression to balls of knitting yarn that the cat got at is a possibility, too. Balls has been American slang for testicles since the early 1880s, and slang for guts or courage since about 1935. |