eat humble pie遭受屈辱；道歉；卑躬屈膝

【使用地区】：英国

【释义】：

To suffer humiliation，to apologize，or to abase oneself．The expression is rarely used in America，where the usual equivalent is to eat crow．To eat humble pie was probably born as a pun．The humble in this pie has nothing to do etymologically with the word humble，“lowly，”which is from the Latin humilis，“low or slight．”Umbles or numbles(from the Latin lumbulus，“little loin”)were the innards—the heart，liver，and entrails——of deer and were often made into a pie．When the lord of a manor and his guests dined on venison，the menials ate umble pie made from the innards of the deer．Anyone who ate umble pie was therefore in a position of inferiority—he or she was humbled—and some anonymous punster in the time of William the Conqueror，realizing this，changed umble pie to humblepie，the pun all the more effective because in several British dialects，espe cially the Cockney，the h is silent and humble is pronounced umble anyway．So the play upon words yielded the common expression to eat humble pie．

此词意义如上所示。该词语在美国很少使用，在美国意义相同的表达法是to eat crow。to eat humble pie出现时是一个双关语。该词语中的humble在词源上与作“低下的”解释的humble无关。此humble源于拉丁语humilis，意为“低的或轻微的”。umbles或numbles(源于拉丁语lumbulus，意为“小狮子”)指的是鹿的内脏，如心、肝和肠子，并经常被做成馅饼。当庄园主和他的客人吃着鹿肉时，仆人们却吃着由鹿的内脏制成的馅饼。因此，任何吃这种馅饼的人就是地位低下的人，即他或她是受到鄙视的人。在威廉一世统治时期，某个不知名的双关语爱好者意识到了这一点，把umble pie改成了humble pie。这个双关语后来变得更为有效，因为在好几种英国方言里，尤其在伦敦东区土话中，字母h是不发音的，humble被读作umble。所以，这个文字游戏就衍生出了这个常用语to eat humble pie。