英语词汇hangdog look的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

hangdog look. It’s said that hunting dogs living in the great English country houses of the past, eating scraps tossed from the table and sleeping as close to the fire as they could get, were kept orderly by special handlers who broke up dogfights, whipped their charges, and even hanged incorrigible dogs. Shakespeare, no dog lover, does refer to the hanging of dogs five times in his plays, but I’ve been unable to find any reliable record of actual cases of a dog hanging, though there are other cases of animals tried and executed by law (see E. P. Evans, The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals, 1906). Nevertheless, since the late 17th century anyone with a cringing, abject appearance, or a base, sneaky demeanor has been said to have a hangdog look. Whether real or the product of someone’s imagination, the allusion was originally to a des- picable, degraded person fit only to hang a dog, or to be hanged like a dog. Nowadays a hangdog look has almost entirely lost its meaning of contemptible and sneaky and generally describes someone browbeaten, defeated, intimidated, or abject—some- one who looks a little like a bloodhound.

词汇	hangdog look
词源	hangdog look. It’s said that hunting dogs living in the great English country houses of the past, eating scraps tossed from the table and sleeping as close to the fire as they could get, were kept orderly by special handlers who broke up dogfights, whipped their charges, and even hanged incorrigible dogs. Shakespeare, no dog lover, does refer to the hanging of dogs five times in his plays, but I’ve been unable to find any reliable record of actual cases of a dog hanging, though there are other cases of animals tried and executed by law (see E. P. Evans, The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals, 1906). Nevertheless, since the late 17th century anyone with a cringing, abject appearance, or a base, sneaky demeanor has been said to have a hangdog look. Whether real or the product of someone’s imagination, the allusion was originally to a des- picable, degraded person fit only to hang a dog, or to be hanged like a dog. Nowadays a hangdog look has almost entirely lost its meaning of contemptible and sneaky and generally describes someone browbeaten, defeated, intimidated, or abject—some- one who looks a little like a bloodhound.
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