| 词源 |
caught red-handed. To be taken with red hand in ancient times was to be caught in the act, like a murderer, his hands red with his victim’s blood. The use of red hand in this sense goes back to 15th-century Scotland and Scottish law. Scott’s Ivanhoe has the first recorded use of taken red-handed for someone apprehended in the act of committing a crime. Not long after, the expression became more common as caught red-handed. |