英语词汇tilt at windmills的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

tilt at windmills. Advising his squire Sancho Panza that 30 or 40 windmills were “monstrous giants,” Don Quixote spurred his steed Rosinante forward, his lance extended to “do good ser- vice” and “sweep so evil a breed off the face of the earth.” At- tacking a windmill, his lance got caught in one of its sails, which lifted the valiant knight into the air and smashed him to the ground, leaving him with nothing but injuries for his effort. This was perhaps the most absurd of the quixotic adventures of Don Quixote, hero of Cervantes’s great satirical novel Don Quixote (1605–15). The book was meant to satirize the age’s ro- mantic tales of chivalry that filled its hero’s mind, and this par- ticular episode is among its most memorable. Almost as soon as Don Quixote was published it inspired the expression to fight with or tilt at windmills, “to combat imaginary foes or ward off nonexistent dangers,” and the phrase to have windmills in your head, “to be full of fanciful notions or visionary schemes.”

词汇	tilt at windmills
词源	tilt at windmills. Advising his squire Sancho Panza that 30 or 40 windmills were “monstrous giants,” Don Quixote spurred his steed Rosinante forward, his lance extended to “do good ser- vice” and “sweep so evil a breed off the face of the earth.” At- tacking a windmill, his lance got caught in one of its sails, which lifted the valiant knight into the air and smashed him to the ground, leaving him with nothing but injuries for his effort. This was perhaps the most absurd of the quixotic adventures of Don Quixote, hero of Cervantes’s great satirical novel Don Quixote (1605–15). The book was meant to satirize the age’s ro- mantic tales of chivalry that filled its hero’s mind, and this par- ticular episode is among its most memorable. Almost as soon as Don Quixote was published it inspired the expression to fight with or tilt at windmills, “to combat imaginary foes or ward off nonexistent dangers,” and the phrase to have windmills in your head, “to be full of fanciful notions or visionary schemes.”
随便看	powwow ppc practice what you preach pragmatism prairie dog prairie dogging prairie oysters prairie schooner prairie state prairie strawberries praise the lord and pass the ammunition praline pratfall pravda praying mantis preaching singing to the choir prebuttal precocious predator prepone preposition preposterous prequel presa canario presbyterian church