英语词汇come up to scratch的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

come up to scratch. Deaths and maimings were so frequent in the lawless early days of boxing that one rule had to be estab- lished if there were to be enough boxers alive to please the crowd. A line was scratched in the center of the ring (in the ground or on the canvas) and a fighter who couldn’t “come up to scratch” when the bell sounded for a new round was consid- ered physically unable to fight any longer. This early version of the technical knockout probably led to use of to come up to scratch as a figurative expression for fulfilling or meeting re- quirements of any nature. Scratch, however, was the term for a starting point or boundary in cricket, shooting matches, horse racing, and cockfighting as well as boxing, so the expression could have originated in one of these sports, especially from cockfighting, where a cock that doesn’t come up to scratch and fight is considered an inferior specimen.

词汇	come up to scratch
词源	come up to scratch. Deaths and maimings were so frequent in the lawless early days of boxing that one rule had to be estab- lished if there were to be enough boxers alive to please the crowd. A line was scratched in the center of the ring (in the ground or on the canvas) and a fighter who couldn’t “come up to scratch” when the bell sounded for a new round was consid- ered physically unable to fight any longer. This early version of the technical knockout probably led to use of to come up to scratch as a figurative expression for fulfilling or meeting re- quirements of any nature. Scratch, however, was the term for a starting point or boundary in cricket, shooting matches, horse racing, and cockfighting as well as boxing, so the expression could have originated in one of these sports, especially from cockfighting, where a cock that doesn’t come up to scratch and fight is considered an inferior specimen.
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