[英文] hair of the dog

連寫兩個idiom...也不是我願意的啊...

這個比較複雜 --- hair of the dog不就是狗毛，能有多複雜呢？

當它用於 "Hair of the dog is no way to cure the economic hangover from China's wayward policies." 這句時，就讓我感到很複雜。

以前沒特別注意過，直覺上認為這應該是個俚語。幸好，我的英語直感還不算太差：

＊ hair of the dog (that bit on) 

• 來源：
• 早期，被狂犬咬到的民俗療法，是從咬人的那隻狗身上拔下一根毛，放在被咬的傷口上。

• 移用：
• 解宿醉的酒。
• 對，你沒看錯，就是用「酒」來治「酒」（所以這俚語可不可以譯為以毒攻毒？）。
• 也就是，有種解宿醉的民俗療法，是用加了酒在內的解酒液來緩解；因為這道理跟以前治狂犬咬傷有點像，所以就用hair of the dog來指稱這類「解宿醉的酒」（之所以用「這類」，是因為有很多種recipe，我本人沒喝過就是了，不知道有沒有效？

• 醫學資訊網站MedicineNet說
• Hair of the dog: An alcoholic chaser reputed to relieve a hangover, usually needed the morning after imbibing too much alcohol. There is no scientific evidence as to the efficacy of this time-honored treatment for a hangover.
• The saying originated in the belief that a cure for hydrophobia (rabies) or any disease contracted from a dog bite consisted of taking a hair of the dog that bit you and placing it in the wound.
• OALD說：

• the hair of the dog (that bit you)

   (informal)alcohol that you drink in order to make you feel better when you have drunk too much alcohol the night before
  
• Collins dictionary給了一些實際用例：

• Definitions

  1. . an alcoholic drink taken as an antidote to a hangover

  Usage examples

  "I could do with hair of the dog ," says Chris, a student from Derby -his face looking green.

  TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES (2001)

  And the hair of the dog is no better: it just postpones and prolongs the evil hour when the temples begin to pound.

  COURIER, SUNDAY MAIL (2004)

  And you'll be spending Sundays at the DIY store rather than down the pub with a hair of the dog for your chronic hangover.

  SUN, NEWS OF THE WORLD (2002)

  But now he was feeling the worse for it and wondering if a hair of the dog that bit him might not set him up for the day.

  Ian St James Awards AT THE STROKE OF TWELVE

  Don't go for `the hair of the dog that bit you" (more grog).

  MISC (1998)

  His hair of the dog , however, turns out to be jogging down the traffic-choked streets of the city in a pair of Nike's.

  BUSINESS TODAY (2000)

  Now I found myself unable to resist the hair of the dog to alleviate typhoidal hangovers.

  Gwyneth Lewis SUNBATHING IN THE RAIN (2002)

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再來看看讓我今天能夠學到這個片語的新聞：

• WSJ    Updated November 14, 2012, 10:18 a.m. ET

China's Boozy Cure for Growth Hangover 

Hair of the dog is no way to cure the economic hangover from China's wayward policies.
The country's economy stabilized in September and October, just in time for the once-in-a-decade change in the top leadership. But it was a return to the bad old ways of public infrastructure investment that did the job.

...

...

But boosting growth by ratcheting up infrastructure spending still kicks the necessary rebalancing of China's economy further down the road.

因為文章談的是中國的經濟成長，所以用 hair of the dog 來治的，自然是economic的hangover囉。 （這跟上一篇的 "(banks bury their heads in the) financial sands" 是異曲同工）

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補充：

用酒解宿醉、用狗毛治狗咬，是一種 curing like with like 或是

也就是我們現在常說的順勢療法，

事實上，順勢療法這個字Homoeopathy說得白話點，可說是 "like cure/curing"