英语词汇make a clean breast of it的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

make a clean breast of it. “That man of peace . . . hath been entrusted with King’s breasts,” someone wrote of an early diplo- mat. Breast has been a synonym for the heart since ancient times and, like the organ it houses, was long thought to be the seat of consciousness, the repository of all private thoughts, emotions, and secrets. To memorize something was to know it on breast as well as learn it by heart and a person burdened by guilt had a stained breast. These expressions are obsolete now, but the phrase to make a clean breast, “to make a full confession or disclosure,” has remained part of the language since the early 18th century. One suspects that it is much older, going back to days “when men had breasts like lions” and ceremonial heart burials like Robert Bruce’s were common in England.

词汇	make a clean breast of it
词源	make a clean breast of it. “That man of peace . . . hath been entrusted with King’s breasts,” someone wrote of an early diplo- mat. Breast has been a synonym for the heart since ancient times and, like the organ it houses, was long thought to be the seat of consciousness, the repository of all private thoughts, emotions, and secrets. To memorize something was to know it on breast as well as learn it by heart and a person burdened by guilt had a stained breast. These expressions are obsolete now, but the phrase to make a clean breast, “to make a full confession or disclosure,” has remained part of the language since the early 18th century. One suspects that it is much older, going back to days “when men had breasts like lions” and ceremonial heart burials like Robert Bruce’s were common in England.
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