This question is a long-standing but easy-to-understand question. Why do we say "lose"?
Because in ancient times, the failure of the battle was called "north". That is to say, during the various major wars in the pre-Qin Dynasty, if two groups (tribes, small countries) fought and one side lost, then the chicken feather letter sent back to the leader must have the word "north" written on it, not "defeat".
There is a saying in Sun Tzu's Art of War: "Don't follow the north." It means "pretend to be defeated and flee the enemy, don't chase after it." The Western Han Jiayi's "On Passing the Qin" also has such a saying as "chasing after the dead and chasing the north", which means "chasing and killing the defeated and fleeing enemy army".
We can see that in the text at that time, there was only "north", and there was no "defeat", "defeat", or even "defeat".
"North" is the ancient word for "back". In the Commentary on the Interpretation of Texts, it is said: "North. Back also, the two of them turned their backs. "In fact, looking at the font type, I also know that this is not two people back to back? Therefore, the word "north" is extended to "back". In the conquest, the two armies are opposite, and the side that cannot fight turns its back and flees, always exposing its back to the victorious side, so the defeat is called "north".
And the word "defeat" originally means to destroy, to destroy. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the scale of the war gradually expanded, not only destroying the enemy army, but also destroying it, coupled with the development of words, the word "defeat" appeared. For example, in the "History of Xiang Yu Benji": "My soldiers are still eight years old, and they have fought for more than seventy years, and those who have been dealt with have broken, and those who have been hit have served, and they have not tasted defeat." ”
The word "north" is used alone as a direction, which is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and the meaning of failure and defeat is gradually replaced by other words that are becoming richer and richer, but it is still retained in the word "defeat", which makes the subject confused.
Let's look at the origin of the direction word.
In traditional Chinese, "East" is the wood of the sun, representing the sunrise in the east; "west" originally means "perch", representing the nesting of tired birds; "south" shape is dense and sunny, representing sufficient light; "north" or back-to-back, we are in the northern hemisphere, in order to find more sunlight, the house is sitting north facing south, then the back of the south is naturally "north (back)".
The word "north" extends to meaning the four directions of "east, south, west and north".
Therefore, we usually only call it "defeat".
Of course, if you don't do anything well and send a "north" word to your boss, you should be able to understand it, but you may be expelled.