英语词汇cat-o’-nine-tails的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

cat-o’-nine-tails. Some black humorist probably coined the name for this terrible scourge—because it scratched the back like a cat—but the fact that the first Egyptian scourges were made of thongs of cat hide may have had something to do with the word’s origin. The nine tails of the scourge, similar to the “nine lives” of a cat, could also have suggested the name. Scourging criminal offenders with a whip is a punishment as old as history. There are cases in medieval England of prisoners receiving 60,000 stripes from whips with three lashes and 20 knots in each tail. But the cat-o’-nine-tails, composed of one 18-inch handle with nine tails and three or more knots on each tail, only dates back to about 1670. Men were flayed alive with this scourge, which people believed was more holy, and thus ef- fective, because its nine tails were a “trinity of trinities” (3 × 3 = 9).

词汇	cat-o’-nine-tails
词源	cat-o’-nine-tails. Some black humorist probably coined the name for this terrible scourge—because it scratched the back like a cat—but the fact that the first Egyptian scourges were made of thongs of cat hide may have had something to do with the word’s origin. The nine tails of the scourge, similar to the “nine lives” of a cat, could also have suggested the name. Scourging criminal offenders with a whip is a punishment as old as history. There are cases in medieval England of prisoners receiving 60,000 stripes from whips with three lashes and 20 knots in each tail. But the cat-o’-nine-tails, composed of one 18-inch handle with nine tails and three or more knots on each tail, only dates back to about 1670. Men were flayed alive with this scourge, which people believed was more holy, and thus ef- fective, because its nine tails were a “trinity of trinities” (3 × 3 = 9).
随便看	in the clutch in the country land of the blind the one-eyed man is king in the dark all cats are grey in the doghouse in the driver-s seat in the groove in the hole in the ketchup in the land country of the blind the one-eyed man is king in the money in the name of the great jehovah and the continental congress in the nick in the ozone in the pink in the red in there pitching in the tub in the wings into each life some rain must fall intoxicated intransigent introvert in two shakes of a lamb-s tail inuit words in english invented words