老外说“go south”，居然不是“去南方”？

​字面意思就是“去南方”

…

联想起无数人纠结是要北上还是南下工作，

难道外国人也有类似的隐喻?

其实这个短语的解释还不止一个，

我们来一一认识一下

go south

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

去逃跑;逃走不见或消失(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.

那帮人听说警察发现了他们的藏身之处，便纷纷逃走不见了。

The dog has gone south into the night.

狗已消失在夜色中了。

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

下降或落下;贬值;失去质量或价值(尤指与金融或股票交易有关的。)

这个意思可能和地图上的“上北下南”有关，南方就是下方，往南走就是下降的趋势。

例：

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

该公司的股票今天连续第三天下跌。

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

看来我们的道德标准都下降了。

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

停止工作或运作;退出，失败或分崩离析。

例：

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

工会和建筑公司昨天谈崩了，所以看起来工人很快就会再次罢工。

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

我的电脑才用了一个月，就已经坏了。

总的来说，go south都有一个趋势上的不好，由此我们也可以猜出go north作为它的反方向也就表示了一个好的趋势。

例：

I hope the talk will go north this time.

我希望这次的会谈的成功。

对于今天学习的知识大家有什么想法吗?

欢迎来评论区分享心得~