当你在其他语言里看见这10个单词，那都是向英语借的！

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我们在学习外语的过程中，总会碰到各种各样的外来词汇，其中有10个单词我们只能在英语中找到。也就是说，如果你在学习其他语言的时候碰到这10个单词，那都是向英语借的！究竟是哪10个单词呢？

Cheesy

虚伪的

Other languages have words that mean false, tacky, or trying too hard, but only the English slang term “cheesy” can fully express something so fake that it stinks like Camembert.

其他语言中都有含义为“错误的，低劣的，或刻意的”这样的词，但只有英语俚语“cheesy”能完全表达出“某物假的就像难闻的卡芒贝尔干酪”这样的意思。

For example, “He came up to me at the bar with this big cheesy grin on his face and said, ‘Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?'”

例如，“在酒吧里，他走向我，脸上挂着虚伪的笑容并说道，‘你从天堂落下来的时候受伤了吗？’”

Pimp

男皮条客

Surely this word’s transformation is one of the strangest in the English language. According to Merriam-Webster, men who exploit prostitutes have been called “pimps” since the 1700s.

这个单词的含义转变确实是最奇怪的英语词义变化之一了。根据韦氏词典的解释，从18世纪起，拉皮条的男子就被叫做“pimps”。

But only in English has “pimp” become a humorous, semi-favorable verb, meaning to refurbish something, to make it super-fancy, as in the reality TV show Pimp My Ride.

不过只有在英语里，“pimp”还是一个幽默的、有半称赞意味的动词，意思是刷新某物使其变得更好，如真人秀节目“Pime My Ride”（《嘻哈飙车族》）中的“pimp”就是这个意思。

Serendipity

意外发现珍贵物品的天赋才能

According to Merriam-Webster, serendipity, which means the state of finding pleasant or desirable things by accident, comes from Serendip, an ancient name for Sri Lanka.

在韦氏词典中，“serendipity”这个词的意思是偶然发现令人愉快或值得拥有的事物的状态，这个词出自斯里兰卡的一个古老的名字“Serendip”（赛伦迪培）。

In 18th century Britain , the writer Horace Walpole popularized the word in reference to a folk tale about ‘the three princes of Serendip,’ who “were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of.”

在18世纪的英国，霍勒斯•沃波尔在讲述一个民间故事“赛伦迪培的三个王子”的时候普及了这个词，故事中的三个王子“总是偶然机敏地发现他们没有探寻的东西”。

Trade-off

妥协

“Trade” is one of the many English verbs that change dramatically when paired with different prepositions… and each expresses a concept that would take a whole sentence to explain in any other language: Trade in, trade up, and trade down are just a few examples.

与不同的介词搭配在一起含义变化显著的词汇有很多，“Trade”（贸易）这个词就是其中之一。它与介词搭配的每一个词都表达了一个不同的概念，而这些词在其他语言中则需要用一整个句子去解释，例如，“Trade in”（做生意），“Trade up”（将旧物(如房屋、汽车等)折价换取较贵重的同类东西）和“Trade down”（以某物折价换取同类中的低档货）。

But the trade-off is a particularly American concept; what other nationality would actually have to state: “You can’t have it all; there is always a trade-off!”

但是“trade-off”确是一个很美式的概念，其他国家的人可能不得不说：“你无法拥有所有的一切，总要有妥协（trade-off）！”

Silly

幼稚的

There are plenty of synonyms out there for ridiculous or foolish, but this one also means lighthearted, playful, and kind of fun. Could it be a faint echo of the word’s evolving definition?

“Ridiculous”（可笑的）或“foolish”（愚蠢的）这类的词有很多同义词（例如silly），但“silly”这个词还有“无忧无虑的，顽皮的，有点有趣”的意思。这莫非是微弱地呼应了这个词的演化定义？

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, 500 years ago silly meant “happy, blissful, lucky, or blessed. From there it came to mean innocent, or deserving of compassion”.

牛津英语词典指出，500年前，“silly”的含义是“快乐的，欣喜若狂的，幸运的或幸福的。由此它又引申为天真的，或值得同情的”。

Gobbledygook

（公文或科技资料中）晦涩的语言

Gobbledygook sounds like Middle English but according to Dictionary.com, this term for unintelligible jargon actually only dates from World War II.

“Gobbledygook”这个词听起来像中古英语，但词典在线指出，这个表示“晦涩难懂的行话”的术语实际上出自二战时期。

At that time, American Congressman Maury Maverick “used [it] in a memo dated March 30, 1944, banning ‘gobbledygook language’, ‘anyone using the words activation or implementation will be shot.’

当时，美国国会议员莫里•马沃瑞克“在1944年3月30日的一份备忘录中用到了这个词，他写道禁止‘gobbledygook language’（晦涩难懂的语言），‘任何使用这类词汇的人都会被枪决。’”

Hillbilly

乡下人

According to Dave Tabler, at Appalachian History website, this name for a rural American was brought by Scots-Irish settlers who flooded Appalachia in the 1700s.

戴夫•塔柏表示，在阿巴拉契亚历史网站上，表示美国乡下人的这个词是苏格兰和爱尔兰移民带来的，他们在18世纪涌入阿巴拉契亚地区。

The word probably comes from two Scottish words mashed together: “hill-folk” and “billy” and the term was more descriptive than disparaging .

这个词可能是两个苏格兰词汇“hill-folk”（山里人）和“billy”（伙伴）的合成词，而且这个词偏描述性，蔑视的意味要淡一些。

But these days if you don’t consider yourself a hillbilly, don’t call someone else one… or you’ll discover “them’s fightin’ words!”

不过，当下如果你不用这个词称呼自己，那也不要用它称呼别人，不然你会发现“它是会引起争吵的词！”

Facepalm

捂脸

People have been hiding their faces in their hands to express embarrassment, dismay, or exasperation for hundreds of years, but Merriam-Webster dates the term “facepalm” to 1996, making it the newest word on this list.

数百年来，人们一直用捂脸（用手遮住脸部）这个动作来表达自己的窘迫、沮丧或愤怒，但韦氏词典认为“facepalm”这个词始于1996年，这也使它成为这个榜单上最新的一个单词。

Our favorite use of the word comes from The Los Angeles Review of Books in 2014: “There’s a kind of facepalm moment in the terrific pilot episode of Amazon’s terrific new series Transparent when you realize that the title is a pun.”

我们最喜欢2014年《洛杉矶书评》对这个词的使用：“亚马逊推出了一部非常棒的试验性剧作《透明人生》。当你意识到这个标题一语双关的时候，那会让你有一种捂脸的冲动。”

Spam

（斯帕姆）午餐肉，垃圾邮件

As Time magazine puts it, “Before ‘spam’ was a word that represented unwanted emails, it was a word that represented the successful repackaging of unwanted meats.”

正如《时代周刊》所叙述的那样，“在‘spam’这个词表示无用邮件之前，它指的是成功重新包装的没人要的肉类产品”。

Introduced in 1937, SPAM was a clever way to repackage the undesirable cut of pork shoulder, and the brand name itself is a combination of “spiced” and “ham,” invented in a naming contest.

“SPAM”这个词于1937年开始使用，它精巧地形容了重新包装的那些从猪肩胛上切下来的不想要的肉类产品，而且这个品牌的名字本身就是“spiced”（调过味的）和“ham”（火腿）这两个词的组合，它是在一场命名大赛上提出的。

The newer meaning derives from a skit by the 1970s British comedy troupe Monty Python in which a band of Vikings drown out all other conversation by shouting the word “spam” over and over again—much as a barrage of unsolicited commercial emails will overwhelm everything else in your inbox.

“Spam”这个词的新含义源自20世纪70年代英国喜剧团体“巨蟒”的一部滑稽短剧，剧中一伙海盗一遍又一遍地大喊着“Spam”这个词来盖过其他人的对话，就像一堆自动发送的商业邮件淹没了你的收件箱一样。

Cool

表示赞同

This multifaceted word of approval is another one that started out meaning one thing and wound up as another. According to Merriam-Webster, we have to go all the way back to 12th century Middle English to find the first mention of cool, meaning the opposite of hot.

这个表示赞同且有多层面含义的词汇是另外一个最初有一种含义，之后又衍生出其他含义的词。根据韦氏词典的解释，这个词最初的含义要追溯到12世纪的中古英语，表示热的反义词。

Over the years this idea gets applied to emotions: tempers that run hot or cool. In the 1920s, American jazz culture prized that quality of relaxed calm in music and in life, and the word became a synonym for admirable, fashionable, and good.

多年来，这个词开始用来形容情感：例如脾气火爆或冷淡。在20世纪20年代，美国爵士乐文化又用这个词来评价那种在音乐和生活中放松平静的品性，而这个词就变成了“令人钦佩的，时髦的，好的”的同义词。

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