| 词汇 | by hook or by crook |
| 词源 | by hook or by crook. Used by John Wycliffe in 1380 and now standard English, this expression has a dozen expla- nations that can’t be proved or disproved. The most widely ac- cepted theory traces by hook or by crook to the forests of medi- eval England, which belonged to the King and were off limits to all commoners except those gathering firewood. Ancient law restricted these peasant gatherers to dead wood on the ground or dead branches that they could reach with a shep- herd’s crook and cut off with a reaper’s billhook. The story does explain the phrase meaning “by any means possible,” but leaves something to be desired regarding the foul means sug- gested by crook. One widely accepted version traces the ex- pression to 1100, when a charcoal burner named Purkiss found the body of William Rufus, King of England, who had been slain by an archer in Hampshire’s New Forest. Purkiss carted the king’s body to Winchester and was rewarded with permission to gather all the wood in the forest that he needed for his charcoal burners—provided he took only wood that he could reach by hook or crook. Almost 900 years have passed and the Purkiss family (now spelled Purkess) still live in the New Forest, which is the largest surviving medieval forest in England thanks to such hook and crook conservation laws, if I may coin a phrase. |
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