介绍:
Blue blood
People are labelling Miss Hong Kong candidate, Luisa Mak, as a blue blood, for her families connections and the charisma that got her into Cambridge.
Tony's mom forbid her son to marry anyone who was not also from a blue blood family.
Because his grandfather made millions, he is considered to be a blue blood.
Definition: a person of aristocratic or wealthy ancestry
Etymology: A literal translation of the Spanish 'sangre azul', attributed to some of the oldest and proudest families of Castile, who claimed never to have intermarried with Moors, Jews, or other races. The expression probably originated in the blueness of the veins of people of fair complexion as compared with those of dark skin.
Bottom of the barrel
After the football teams starting players all got injured, the coach selected players from the bottom of the barrel.
The last secretary you assigned to me was from the bottom of the barrel.
At the end of the war, the Germans scraped the bottom of the barrel and sent teenage boys and elderly men to fight.
Definition: someone or something of the lowest quality
Etymology: "to use the least desirable elements" (because one has no choice), as in Bringing up that minor legal point proves that you're scraping the bottom of the barrel. This metaphor for the sediment left by wine in a barrel was already used by Cicero to describe the lowest elements of Roman socie
do a 180
President Obama did a 180 when it came to his view on gay rights.
Cory did a 180 on his decision on adopting a dog.
Randy's music taste did a 180, from liking K-Pop to Jazz.
Definition: to radically reverse a decision or opinion.
Etymology: as in 180 degree protractor
