【文稿】各种“色色”的英文短语

Xiaohu: Hello and welcome to Roundtable’s Word of the Week. 感恩节后的黑色星期五刚刚过去，那么今天我们就来聊一些跟颜色有关的英语词汇吧。 John: Yeah, and so we won’t be teaching you about Black Friday because I think you already know that one. Instead we’re looking at other colors and other phrases. So we’re going to start in kind of alphabetical order, with blue. So we have out of the blue, which is unexpected, and then once in a blue moon, which is an event that occurs infrequently. Xiaohua: 先来说说蓝色. Out of the blue是出人意料的。Once in a blue moon是不经常发生的事件。 John: Yeah, because there’s no such thing as a blue moon, unfortunately. Moving on to green, get the green light, that kind of makes a bit of sense, you know, you have a green light, a yellow light, a red light, when you get the green light, it means you can go and do something. Then of course there is the green thumb or green fingers, which is basically really good at gardening, making plants grow. A green horn is a novice, or a beginner, so basically just someone who just started doing something. And then there’s my favorite, which is green around the gills, or turn green, which means someone looks a little sick, a little nauseous. Xiaohua: get the green light 就是说得到允许做某一件事情。如果有人有green thumb的话，那一般说明他们的园艺水平非常好，种什么什么都能活。Green horn是新手的意思，而turn green则是脸色非常非常难看，so either you are really sick, or maybe you are scared by a ghost or something? John: No, no. it only refers to feeling sick, so someone visibly looks like they’re about to vomit. And as soon as someone turns green, get them a bucket, pretty much. John: Moving on. Yellow. So there’s yellowbellied. I’m not sure where this came from, but it basically means someone who is a coward, so a yellowbelly is a coward. And then there is yellow journalism, basically a type of journalism meant to sensationalize news stories to sell papers. Xiaohua: 说到黄色，yellowbelly是指胆小鬼、懦夫。而yellow journalism是指为了追求惊悚不顾新闻事实的新闻报道方法，标题党也可以算是一种吧。 John: And then moving on to brown, and so there is brown bagging, and this can actually have two different meanings. One is basically just to bring a home-made lunch to work, but also brown bagging can also refer to the practice of putting an open alcoholic container into a brown bag and drinking it in public, because most states in the US, for example, have laws against open containers. However, if you keep it in a brown bag, the police probably will not give you a hard time. Xiaohua: That’s very interesting. 牛皮纸袋的颜色是brown，所以brown bagging既可以指从家里打包带一些做好的吃的来办公室吃，也可以指喜欢喝酒的人把打开了的酒瓶子装在袋子里在公共场合来喝。因为在很多西方国家，在公共场合公开喝酒是不被允许的。 John: And then there is red, so caught red-handed. Someone is clearly guilty. It means they were caught with their hands in the cookie jar. They were caught actually in the act of doing something. And then there is seeing red. This is obviously quite descriptive. When someone just gets so angry, the blood goes into their eyes, and they’re just, very, very angry. Then there is not worth a red cent. Again I have no idea where this comes from. It’s very, very interesting, though. Basically it just means that something has no value. It’s not worth a red cent. Xiaohua: 说到红色，caught red-handed就是指被抓了现行，当场被抓住。Seeing red则是说某人非常非常生气，气到不行的这种程度。Not worth a red cent是说某件事情毫无价值。 John: Now pink, very closely related to red, but in meaning, very, very far. So there is tickled pink. It means just to be very happy about something. And then there is in the pink, which means that you’re in good health. Xiaohua: Pink好像总是和一些比较好的意思连接在一起。Tickled pink，是指非常高兴，而in the pink则是指身体很好。 John: And purple. So purple prose is an elaborately written poem or paragraph in literature. Usually it refers to something that’s a bit over-written, a little bit too verbose. Xiaohua: 紫色总是和高贵联系在一起，那么紫色的诗篇或文字则是指高贵典雅、但有时过于矫揉造作的诗句。 John: Now white. So white Christmas is when there is snow on Christmas day, and unfortunately if you’re living in a place like Australia you will not have a white Christmas because it’s summer during Christmas unfortunately. And then there’s white hot, so basically something is really, really hot, so hot that it is in fact white. It can also mean that something is just very, very intense, like white hot emotion perhaps. Xiaohua: White Christmas就是下雪的圣诞节，而white hot可以指非常热，也可以指是非常强烈的意思。 John: And so the opposite of white is of course black. Then there is blackball, so to blackball is to vote against someone in a secret manner to prevent them from becoming a member of a club. This is actually similar to blacklisting. For example, when you blacklist someone, you put their name on a list somewhere or it becomes known, and then they cannot find a job in that certain industry. Then there is the black sheep, or the name of a movie actually with Chris Farley in it a very funny movie. It just means a bad character in an otherwise respectable group, or at least someone who sticks out very, very clearly, doesn’t necessarily follow the rules, and perhaps a bit more of a rebel.