英语词汇pillar to post的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

pillar to post. At first this expression was from post to pillar, a figure of speech drawn from the old game of court tennis in the 14th century or earlier. Court tennis, played indoors, differed in many ways from today’s lawn tennis, but volleys were even then crucial to the game. One popular volley was from post to pillar, from a post supporting the net or rope to one of the rear pillars supporting the tennis gallery. Apparently players commonly sustained long volleys between these two points, for by the early 15th century Englishmen were regularly using the expression from post to pillar tossed outside the game of tennis. In another century the phrase had been reversed to from pillar to post, but it still meant the same: “to and fro, hither and thither, from one thing to another without any definite purpose.” Modern use of the expression in the sense of going monotonously or fruitlessly from one thing to another is just a logical extension.

词汇	pillar to post
词源	pillar to post. At first this expression was from post to pillar, a figure of speech drawn from the old game of court tennis in the 14th century or earlier. Court tennis, played indoors, differed in many ways from today’s lawn tennis, but volleys were even then crucial to the game. One popular volley was from post to pillar, from a post supporting the net or rope to one of the rear pillars supporting the tennis gallery. Apparently players commonly sustained long volleys between these two points, for by the early 15th century Englishmen were regularly using the expression from post to pillar tossed outside the game of tennis. In another century the phrase had been reversed to from pillar to post, but it still meant the same: “to and fro, hither and thither, from one thing to another without any definite purpose.” Modern use of the expression in the sense of going monotonously or fruitlessly from one thing to another is just a logical extension.
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