英语词汇toe the line的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

toe the line. Before the Queensberry rules were devised, En- glish prizefights were long and bloody. There was no footwork, and no tactics aside from dirty ones. No attempt was made to evade blows from an opponent. Their bare fists often hardened from soaking in walnut juice, fighters firmly placed their toes on a line officials marked in the center of the ring and slugged it out until one man fell, thus ending the round. The fighters then staggered or were dragged back to their corners for 30 seconds and the match continued until one man couldn’t come out to toe the line when the bell rang for the next round. One of these bouts, the Burke-Byrne fight in 1833, lasted 99 rounds, and poor Byrne—who never gave up—died from the beating he took. The sight of lurching, leaden-armed, broken-handed fighters toeing the line for hours at a time, and doing their job of battering each other bloody and senseless with superhuman willpower, inspired the saying to toe the line, “to do one’s job, to live up to what is expected of you or conform to the rules.” That the expression was an early one used in track events, meaning that all contestants must place their forward foot on the start- ing line (“Get ready, get on your mark . . .”) also contributed to the popularity of this phrase.

词汇	toe the line
词源	toe the line. Before the Queensberry rules were devised, En- glish prizefights were long and bloody. There was no footwork, and no tactics aside from dirty ones. No attempt was made to evade blows from an opponent. Their bare fists often hardened from soaking in walnut juice, fighters firmly placed their toes on a line officials marked in the center of the ring and slugged it out until one man fell, thus ending the round. The fighters then staggered or were dragged back to their corners for 30 seconds and the match continued until one man couldn’t come out to toe the line when the bell rang for the next round. One of these bouts, the Burke-Byrne fight in 1833, lasted 99 rounds, and poor Byrne—who never gave up—died from the beating he took. The sight of lurching, leaden-armed, broken-handed fighters toeing the line for hours at a time, and doing their job of battering each other bloody and senseless with superhuman willpower, inspired the saying to toe the line, “to do one’s job, to live up to what is expected of you or conform to the rules.” That the expression was an early one used in track events, meaning that all contestants must place their forward foot on the start- ing line (“Get ready, get on your mark . . .”) also contributed to the popularity of this phrase.
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