词组 | head over heels |
释义 | head over heels Part of the appeal of this adverbial phrase suggesting a somersault is its lack of logic; the head is, after all, normally over the heels. The original phrase was heels over head, which was recorded as early as the 14th century. The variant head over heels has been in use since the 1700s. The OED described it as "a corruption" of heels over head in 1898, and some critics, such as Bierce 1909, cited it as an error, but common use had by then already made any questions about its logic purely academic. Head over heels has now entirely superseded heels over head, both in its literal sense: • ... tumbling him head over heels into the foam rubber pit —Gwilym S. Brown, Sports Illustrated, 6 July 1964 and in its figurative sense, in which it serves essentially as a synonym for deeply or completely: • ... when she falls head over heels for Barbra Streisand —Robert Brustein, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 4 Apr. 1976 • ... to which the Russians had committed themselves head over heels after a Marxist revolutionary government took power —Craig R. Whitney, N. Y. Times Mag., 20 Apr. 1980 |
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