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Hi, everyone. And welcome back to the segment called It Means What?

Yeah.

Hi, 安澜。 

Hello.

欢迎大家回来【词源考古研究所】这个板块. So in this segment, we're going to explore the interesting origin of words and phrases. So 安澜, what is the word for today?

Not so much a word but a phrase.

Okay. 是短语

Spill the beans.

Spill the beans, it sounds familiar, spill是倒出来, 然后beans是豆子. Yeah. Is it something about secrets?

It is, if you say you spill the beans, that means you accidentally tell a secret or you intentionally tell a secret.

Oh, to spill the beans. I think we talked about something similar, was it “let the cat out of the bag”, 把猫放出口袋也是accidentally reveal a secret.

But this can be intentionally or accidentally.

Spill the beans. So I can say he accidentally spilled the beans,  but I can also say 安澜spill the beans, tell me the secret. Yes,  but why beans？

It actually comes from ancient Greek voting practices.

So we go back to ancient Greeks again. Yes.

When they were voting, if they wanted to say yes, they would use a white stone or a bean to mean “yes” and a black one for “no”.

所以没有用纸写字的时候, 古希腊就是这样子来投票的.

Yes.

一个白色的豆子或者石头, 小石块就是Yes.  And black one means no.

When they collected all of the beans or the stones, then they will count them and they'll make a decision.

I suppose they just put it in some sort of container. Nobody can see what they put in.

Exactly, if someone spills the beans that literally means they accidentally or intentionally knock it over. So the secret results of the election are revealed before they intended them to be revealed.

I see, that's why spill the beans is to reveal the results that should have been kept a secret at that point.

There's quite a few expressions that come from this type of voting practice.

For example, you might have heard the expression black ball.

Oh, I've heard of that expression to black ball someone就是要“黑球”某个人. I think that means to keep someone outside like to reject someone.

Yes, because the black bean or black stone was meant no. So it means no, that means