英语词汇stool pigeon的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

stool pigeon. Fowlers in the past used live decoy birds to lure pigeons and other birds into range of their nets or guns, which helped them to wipe out several species. These live decoys, their eyes sometimes stitched closed, were called stool pigeons, stool-crows, or the like, probably because they were tied by a long string to small stools that the hunters could move up and down while waiting hidden for their prey (although their name may derive from the Old English word stale, meaning “a living bird used to catch others of the same species”). At any rate, in about 1830 the term stool pigeon became American slang for a criminal decoy used by the police to catch other criminals, and by the end of the century it meant a police informer. The last meaning was probably influenced by the use of the slang carrier pigeon for “an informer” at the time, a carrier pigeon carrying information to the police the way the bird carries messages. Stoolie, an abbreviated form of the term, is of relatively recent usage.

词汇	stool pigeon
词源	stool pigeon. Fowlers in the past used live decoy birds to lure pigeons and other birds into range of their nets or guns, which helped them to wipe out several species. These live decoys, their eyes sometimes stitched closed, were called stool pigeons, stool-crows, or the like, probably because they were tied by a long string to small stools that the hunters could move up and down while waiting hidden for their prey (although their name may derive from the Old English word stale, meaning “a living bird used to catch others of the same species”). At any rate, in about 1830 the term stool pigeon became American slang for a criminal decoy used by the police to catch other criminals, and by the end of the century it meant a police informer. The last meaning was probably influenced by the use of the slang carrier pigeon for “an informer” at the time, a carrier pigeon carrying information to the police the way the bird carries messages. Stoolie, an abbreviated form of the term, is of relatively recent usage.
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