英语词汇something up one-s sleeve的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

something up one’s sleeve; laugh up one’s sleeve. Garments in medieval times had few if any pockets, so men often carried whatever couldn’t be hung from their belts in their full sleeves. Probably from this source, rather than from magicians with rabbits up their sleeves, comes our expression for having some- thing in reserve or an alternative plan, although the phrase, in its sense of a scheme or trick, was most likely influenced by magicians concealing in their sleeves the means by which they do a trick. A second expression deriving from the same source is to laugh up (or on) one’s sleeve, “to ridicule a person secretly.” Someone wearing a garment with capacious sleeves was quite literally able to conceal a laugh by hiding his face in his sleeve.

词汇	something up one-s sleeve
词源	something up one’s sleeve; laugh up one’s sleeve. Garments in medieval times had few if any pockets, so men often carried whatever couldn’t be hung from their belts in their full sleeves. Probably from this source, rather than from magicians with rabbits up their sleeves, comes our expression for having some- thing in reserve or an alternative plan, although the phrase, in its sense of a scheme or trick, was most likely influenced by magicians concealing in their sleeves the means by which they do a trick. A second expression deriving from the same source is to laugh up (or on) one’s sleeve, “to ridicule a person secretly.” Someone wearing a garment with capacious sleeves was quite literally able to conceal a laugh by hiding his face in his sleeve.
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