| 词源 |
knock up v.1660s, "arouse by knocking at the door," from knock (v.) + up (adv.). However it is little used in this sense in American English, where the phrase means "get a woman pregnant" (1813, in a New Jersey context), possibly ultimately from knock in a sense "to copulate with" (1590s; compare slang knocking-shop "brothel," 1860). To knock up also meant "to knock unconscious" in early 19c. Knocked up in the United States, amongst females, the phrase is equivalent to being enciente, so that Englishmen often unconsciously commit themselves when amongst our Yankee cousins. [John Camden Hotten, "The Slang Dictionary," London, 1860] Also "to exhaust, overcome or make ill with fatigue" (1737). updated on December 14, 2022 |