heel: English has two separate words heel. The one that names the rear part of the foot [OE] comes ultimately from Germanic *khangkh-, which also produced English hock ‘quadruped’s joint corresponding to the human ankle’. From it was derived *khākhil-, source of Dutch hiel, Swedish häl, Danish hæl, and English heel. Heel ‘tilt, list’ [16] is probably descended from the Old English verb hieldan ‘incline’ (which survived dialectally into the 19th century), its -d mistaken as a past tense or past participle ending and removed to form a new infinitive. Hieldan itself came ultimately from the prehistoric Germanic adjective *khalthaz ‘inclined’. => hock
heel (n.1)
"back of the foot," Old English hela, from Proto-Germanic *hanhilon (cognates: Old Norse hæll, Old Frisian hel, Dutch hiel), from PIE *kenk- (3) "heel, bend of the knee" (source also of Old English hoh "hock").
Meaning "back of a shoe or boot" is c. 1400. Down at heels (1732) refers to heels of boots or shoes worn down and the owner too poor to replace them. For Achilles' heel "only vulnerable spot" see Achilles. To "fight with (one's) heels" (fighten with heles) in Middle English meant "to run away."
heel (v.2)
"to lean to one side," in reference to a ship, Old English hieldan "incline, lean, slope," from Proto-Germanic *helthijan (cognates: Middle Dutch helden "to lean," Dutch hellen, Old Norse hallr "inclined," Old High German halda, German halde "slope, declivity"). Re-spelled 16c. from Middle English hield, probably by misinterpretation of -d as a past tense suffix.
heel (n.2)
"contemptible person," 1914 in U.S. underworld slang, originally "incompetent or worthless criminal," perhaps from a sense of "person in the lowest position" and thus from heel (n.1).
heel (v.1)
of a dog, "to follow or stop at a person's heels," 1810, from heel (n.1). Also see heeled.
中文解释
1. 谐音“鞋(四川方言发音：hai)哦、后哦”------鞋后哦-----脚后哦-----脚后跟哦。2. high heel 高跟鞋.3. heels 高跟鞋.4. 阿喀琉斯之踵（Achilles' Heel），原指阿喀琉斯的脚跟，因是其唯一一个没有浸泡到神水的地方，是他唯一的弱点。后来在特洛伊战争中被人射中致命，现在一般是指致命的弱点，要害。阿喀琉斯，是凡人珀琉斯和美貌仙女忒提斯的宝贝儿子。忒提斯为了让儿子炼成“金钟罩”，在他刚出生时就将其倒提着浸进冥河，遗憾的是，乖儿被母亲捏住的脚后跟却不慎露在水外，全身留下了惟一一处“死穴”。后来，阿喀琉斯被太阳神阿波罗一箭射中了脚踝而死去。后人常以“阿喀琉斯之踵”譬喻这样一个道理：即使是再强大的英雄，他也有致命的死穴或软肋。
实用例句
1. With a snarl, the second dog made a dive for his heel.
伴着一声嗥叫，第二只狗扑向了他的脚后跟。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Horton's Achilles heel was that he could not delegate.
霍顿的软肋在于他不懂得放权。
来自柯林斯例句
3. She snagged a heel on a root and tumbled to the ground.
