晚上吃什麼啊?”“随便。”“我這個菜味道還不錯吧?”“還行。”
這樣的對話内容熟悉嗎?因為大家聽“随便”這個回答太多,所以後來有了“沒有‘随便’這道菜”一說。聽到“還行”就知道其實就是“不好”的意思。你知道嗎?英語裡其實也有這樣類似的回答,而且更簡潔呢,就叫meh(音同mei),這個詞在2015年6月剛剛被收錄進《牛津英語詞典》。
Anyone who regularly uses chatrooms or instant messaging will almost undoubtedly be familiar with responses consisting only of this little sequence of three letters--meh. For the uninitiated, meh is a new interjection peppering news items, messageboards, chatrooms and blogs across the English-speaking Internet, and it's an informal linguistic equivalent of a simple shrug of the shoulders.
定期光顧聊天室或使用即時信息的人肯定對meh這個回複很熟悉。對于不太了解形勢的人來說,meh是新近在英文網絡新聞、論壇、聊天室以及博客中蹿紅的一個感歎詞,傳達的意思跟“聳聳肩”的意思差不多。
No one is completely certain how the use of meh originated, but most sources quote a 2001 episode of The Simpsons as one of the earliest examples. Impossible to accurately define, meh is cropping up increasingly to mean something like a non-commital OK, whatever, if you want, I don't mind … Circumstances surrounding its utterance (and, if spoken, tone of voice) give it a more specific meaning, but in general terms, meh usually implies some kind of indifference to what has just been said.
關于meh這個用法的起源,沒有完全确定的說法,不過大部分引源都顯示2001年《辛普森一家》的劇集中最早使用了meh這個說法。雖然無法給出明确的定義,但meh這個詞在越來越多的場合表示心不在焉的“行”、“随便”、“看你吧”、“我無所謂”等意思。說這個詞時的具體場景(以及說話時的語氣)可能會讓它具體的意思有所區别,但總的來說,meh通常表示對所聞之事漠然或不關心的态度。
For example:
'Want to go for a walk?' – 'Dunno … Meh.'
“想走走嗎?”——“不知道啊,随便吧。”
'Do you like my new shirt?' – 'Meh.'
“我的新裙子怎麼樣?”——“還行吧。”
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