英语脏话的来源历史中找寻答案.

2017-08-14 作者： 42阅读

　　Sometimes, everyday speech just can&apost convey your meaning. You need words with a little more oomph — expletives.

　　有时候，日常用语无法传达你的意思。你需要更有魄力的一些词——脏话。

　　For the sake of knowledge though, we looked into the etymology of a few of these words. Learn where they originated below.

　　为了了解知识，我们探寻了这些咒骂语中一部分的词源。下面来了解一项它们的起源。

　　The "F" Bomb

　　The oldest theories trace the expletive-to-end-all-expletives back to Norwegian fukka and Swedish focka, both meaning "to copulate."

　　关于这个完爆所有其他咒骂语的词最早可以追溯到挪威语fukka和瑞典语focka，都是“交配”的意思。

　　Unfortunately, we don&apost have much evidence of use in English, partly because the original Oxford English Dictionary&aposs creators reportedly considered it taboo. The OED&aposs second edition, however, cites "fukkit" in 1503, but the earliest current spelling appears as "Bischops ... may f*** thair fill and be vnmaryit" from poet Sir David Lyndesay in 1535.

　　不幸的是，我们在英语里并没有发现这个词使用的渊源，部分原因据说是牛津英语词典的最初编写者认为这个词是禁忌。然而，牛津英语词典第二版在1503年引用了"fukkit"。但是，这个词的拼写最早出现在1535年，诗人Sir David Lyndesay写道:"Bischops ... may f*** thair fill and be vnmaryit."

　　The "S" Word

　　Here, we actually have two words and two separate origins to consider: the noun and the verb.

　　在此，我们其实要考虑两个单词和两个不同的起源：名词和动词。

　　The noun nods to Old English scitte, meaning "purging, diarrhea." And just the basic form of excrement stems from Old English scytel. The action, however, has a much more widespread history — Dutch schijten and German scheissen. The Proto-Indo-European base skie conveys the idea of separation, in this case, from the body.

　　名词来自古英语scitte，意为“净化、腹泻。”只不过是从古英语scitte起源的基本排泄物形式。然而，这个行为有更广泛的历史——荷兰语schijten和德语scheissen。这个原始印欧语系词在这里，传达的含义是与身体的分离。

　　Piss

　　Again, English includes two forms of this word, a noun and verb. The verb appeared in the 1300s from French pissier, "to urinate," and vulgar Latin, "pissiare." The noun came later, in the 1400s, and eventually morphed into an intensifying adjective — piss-poor, piss-ugly, etc. — around World War II.

　　同上，英语中这个词有两种形式，名词和动词。动词是在14世纪起源于法语pissier"小便"和通俗拉丁语"pissiare" 。名词出现于15世纪，要晚一些，最后在二战前后演变成一个激烈的形容词——比如说piss-poor(极其贫穷的)、 piss-ugly(极其丑陋的)等等。

　　Goddamn

　　Obviously a compound word of "God" and "damn." "Damn" comes from Latin damnare which means "to condemn." And God originated with Norse goth. But when and how did we put the two together as a blasphemy?

　　这显然是一个由"God" 和 "damn"构成的合成词。"Damn"是起源于拉丁文damnare，意思是“谴责"。God 起源于北欧歌特。但是，我们是什么时候以及怎么把这两个词结合起来作为亵渎神明的言词呢?

　　Let&aposs thank the French for that. They started rerring to the English as "les goddems" during the Hundred Years War because of their frequent profanity, according to Geoffrey Hughes&apos book, "A Social History of Foul Language, Oaths, and Profanity in English."

　　我们应该感谢法国人。根据杰弗里·休斯的著作《英国充斥粗言秽语、咒骂、亵渎”的社会历史》，他们在百年战争期间开始用"les goddems"形容英国人，因为他们经常亵渎神灵。

　　Hell

　　Our word for the worst possible place (religious or not) comes from Proto-Germanic haljo, "the underworld." Some relationship also exists between "cell" and "hell" through the Proto-Indo-European word for "to cover" or "conceal" — kel.

　　我们用来形容可能出现的最坏的世界(不论宗教)的词来源于原始日耳曼语haljo——“阴间”。 "cell" 和 "hell"还在原印欧语词存在某些关系，意为“覆盖”或“隐藏”。

　　Interestingly enough, the Biblical use of hell may stem from Old Norse Hel, the name of Loki&aposs daughter in Norse mythology. She rules over the evil dead much like Hades does in Greek tales.

　　有趣的是，圣经对地狱的用法可能起源于古挪威语Hel，北欧神话中Loki的女儿的名字。就像希腊传说中的哈德斯，她统治着邪恶的死亡魂灵。

　　Bitch

　　Almost everyone knows a bitch is a female dog, probably from Old Norse bikkjuna. Its use as a term of contempt to women, though, began in the 1400s.

　　几乎所有人都知道bitch 是一条母狗。这可能源自古斯堪的纳维亚语bikkjuna。然而，直到15世纪，它才开始用来蔑视妇女。

　　The word is first seen used this way in the Chester Plays of the 1400s. "Who callest thou queine, skabde bitch?" Basically, "Who are you calling a whore, you miserable bitch?”

　　这个词第一次这么用是在15世纪的切斯特剧。"Who callest thou queine, skabde bitch?"大致意思是“你个死婊子，你叫谁贱人呢?”

　　The verb, meaning "to complain," evolved as late at the 1930s.

　　动词直到20世纪40年代才出现，意为“抱怨”。