| 词源 |
take down a peg. A ship’s colors in Elizabethan times were raised and lowered by a system of pegs—the higher the peg, the higher the honor. Colors taken down a peg, therefore, reduced the esteem in which the ship was held, even by its crew. This practice probably suggested the expression to take down a peg, “to humble someone, lower him in his own or everyone else’s eyes,” which dates back to about the same time. |