盘点那些英国人才懂的“爱称”与“骂名”

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人们总说英国人不爱流露情感，事实的确如此。至少在没喝醉时，英国人总是扭扭捏捏，不习惯向亲友表达爱意，经常回避直白露骨的抒情。相反，英国人倾向于用一种外人觉得奇怪的方式来释放被克制的情感——他们喜欢用没有恶意的责骂来表达爱意。如果你听到英国人用一些攻击性词汇“骂”自己的家人朋友爱人，别吃惊，这些词汇其实是他们表达喜爱与亲昵的独特方式。下面是五个看起来在“骂人”，但其实是表示友好的常用词汇，不是英国人(即便能说英语)绝对听不出里面的玄机!
It is often saidthat the British don't like showing emotion.It's certainly the case that - atleast while sober - we dosometimes struggle to display affection towards ournearest anddearest, shunning gushy displays. A very common strategy fordealingwith this emotional repression, however, which certainlybafflesoutsiders, is our tendency to show love through mildabuse.Hearing Brits referto their family, friends, or even partnerswith seemingly offensive smay be surprising at first, but, moreoften than not, these are in factaffectionate, endearing terms.Here are five commonly heard'insults' that areactually prettyfriendly – and will bamboozle any English speakers from outside ofthe UK.
“Billy”是男名“William”的常见缩写，历史上比较出名的“William”有19世纪的威廉四世国王，他经常制造一些毫无意义的扯淡演讲和愚蠢举止，因此被人们嘲笑为“Silly-Billy”。这个短语因为朗朗上口而流传了下来。现在，当某人犯糊涂时，他就会得到一句亲切的“Silly-Billy”。比如：“离论文截止只剩一个小时了，他才开始赶论文?!真是个Silly-billy!”netbirds.com
'Billy' is a commonshortening of the boy's name 'William'.King William IV (4th) in the 1800s waswell-knownfor his rambling,nonsensical speeches and foolish manner, and socame to be known as'Silly-Billy'. The phrase caught on, perhaps because of itscatchyrhyme, and 'silly-billy' is now used as a term of endearmentwhensomeone's being a little daft. As in - 'He only started hisessay this morningand the deadline's in an hour?! What asilly-billy!'
这是我最喜欢的一个词，因为我爸在我和我哥哥小的时候总对我们说。如果有人没仔细思考就做了傻事，你就可以这么骂他。比如：“你又把作业丢进洗衣机了?!你这个Chump!”。显然，“chump”可以看做是“chunk”(大块)和“lump”(笨拙)的合体。所以“Chump”大概就是那种笨拙愚钝的感觉。netbirds.com
One of myfavourites, as my Dad would use it pretty liberallytowards me and my brotherwhen we were children.Referring to aperson who's done something silly withoutputting in much thought -perhaps 'Your homework's in the washing machineagain?! Youchump!'Apparently, 'chump' can be thought of as a mix of thewords'chunk' and 'lump'- so basically, things that are, like achump, a bit dense.
根据“在线语源词典”，“twit”曾经是个动词，意识是批评和指责。后来演变为一个名词，指的是某些非得骂上一番的蠢人。英国有一本着名的儿童读物叫《TheTwits》，讲述了一对顽皮的老夫妇成天在对方身上搞恶作剧。也许是这本书让带动了这个名词的普及，不过日常应用中，Twits还是一个满怀爱意的词，用来形容那些无比亲近却又像那对老夫妇一样让人烦恼的人。netbirds.com
According to the'Online Etymology Dictionary', 'twit' was oncea verb, meaning to blame orreproach someone. It then developed intoa noun - unsurprisingly, describingsomeone that needed blaming orreproaching for being foolish. There's a popularchildren's book inthe UK called 'TheTwits', which describes a really nasty oldcouplewho just play tricks on each other. This may have brought the wordintocommon usage, but its everyday application is still quiteaffectionate, usedtowards someone nowhere near as horrible as thecharacters.
2007年的一次投票结果显示，“numpty”是苏格兰人最喜欢的词，不过它在整个英国也被广泛使用。据推测，它应该源于一个已经过时的词“numps”，意思是愚蠢。“numpty”的意思就是有点***：“她走了三英里去还书结果发现书忘在家啦?真是numpty!”netbirds.com
According to a 2007poll, 'numpty' is Scotland's favouriteword, but it's also used throughout thewider UK. It supposedlyderives from the now outdated word 'numps', meaningstupid. So, a'numpty' is a bit of an idiot - 'She walked 3 miles to returnthebook but left it at home?! The numpty'.
如果说一个人“wally”，就是在说他有点愚钝，没把事情仔细思考清楚。这个单词背后的故事不太明确，但是有个都市传说：在20世纪60年代的一次音乐节节上，一个叫Wally的乐迷(也有版本说是乐迷的狗)走丢了。人们花了一整个周末去找他，最后所有的观众都在叫着“Wally!Wally!”。这场闹剧肯定持续了很久。有趣的是，美国的一本谜语书《Waldo在哪?》在英国被叫做《Wally在哪?》，很可能是因为Wally这个词有着“傻”的含义，就像这本书一样。netbirds.com
Someone who's awally is probably also a bit of achump -they just haven't thought thingsthrough very well. The storybehind its originis a little dubious, buturban-legend has it that,at a 1960s music-festival, a festival-goer (or, insome accounts,his dog) named Wally got lost. The search for him lastedallweekend, and left the entire festival audience shouting 'Wally!Wally!'. Itmust have stuck. Interestingly, the US quiz book'Where's Waldo?' is called'Where's Wally?' in the UK, probablybecause 'Wally' has the connotations ofbeing silly, just like thebook itself.