老外說(shuō)“go south”，居然不是“去南方”？

?字面意思就是“去南方”

…

聯(lián)想起無(wú)數(shù)人糾結(jié)是要北上還是南下工作，

難道外國(guó)人也有類似的隱喻?

其實(shí)這個(gè)短語(yǔ)的解釋還不止一個(gè)，

我們來(lái)一一認(rèn)識(shí)一下

go south

1??To escape; to vanish or disappear. (Not necessarily in a southerly direction.)

去逃跑;逃走不見(jiàn)或消失(并不一定是往南逃)

例：

Everyone in the gang went south when they learned that the police had discovered their hideout.

那幫人聽(tīng)說(shuō)警察發(fā)現(xiàn)了他們的藏身之處，便紛紛逃走不見(jiàn)了。

The dog has gone south into the night.

狗已消失在夜色中了。

2??To fall or drop; to depreciate; to lose quality or value. (Especially related to finances or stock exchanges.)

下降或落下;貶值;失去質(zhì)量或價(jià)值(尤指與金融或股票交易有關(guān)的。)

這個(gè)意思可能和地圖上的“上北下南”有關(guān)，南方就是下方，往南走就是下降的趨勢(shì)。

例：

The company's stock profile continued going south for the third day in a row today.

該公司的股票今天連續(xù)第三天下跌。

It seems like all our moral standards have just gone south.

看來(lái)我們的道德標(biāo)準(zhǔn)都下降了。

3??To cease working or functioning; to quit, fail, or fall apart.

停止工作或運(yùn)作;退出，失敗或分崩離析。

例：

Talks between the labor union and the construction firm went south yesterday, so it looks like workers will be on strike again soon.

工會(huì)和建筑公司昨天談崩了，所以看起來(lái)工人很快就會(huì)再次罷工。

My computer is only a month old, and it's already gone south.

我的電腦才用了一個(gè)月，就已經(jīng)壞了。

總的來(lái)說(shuō)，go south都有一個(gè)趨勢(shì)上的不好，由此我們也可以猜出go north作為它的反方向也就表示了一個(gè)好的趨勢(shì)。

例：

I hope the talk will go north this time.

我希望這次的會(huì)談的成功。

對(duì)于今天學(xué)習(xí)的知識(shí)大家有什么想法嗎?

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