《经济学人》双语：著名的词源故事是假的？

原文标题：
Johnson
Stranger than fiction
Some popular etymologies are apocryphal. But real ones can be entertaining, too
约翰逊专栏
比虚构故事还奇怪
一些流行的词源故事是虚构的。但真实版本也很有趣

Some well-known etymologies are too good to be true
But lots of genuine ones are fascinating and entertaining
一些著名的词源太炫了以致于不真实
但很多真的词源故事也很有趣

[Paragraph 1]
SALARY, AS THE classically minded know, is a salty term.
正如古典主义者所知，“工资”是一个与salty相关的词。

Not that it is unfit for company, but because it comes from the Latin for “salt”: Roman soldiers were given an allowance of salt, or paid in it entirely.
这并不是说它不适合携带，而是因为它来源于拉丁语中“盐”：罗马士兵获得的津贴是盐，或者全部用盐支付薪水。

It is a tale made for a cocktail party, memorable, revealing of ancient habits—and very probably wrong.
这是派对上令人难忘的谈资，揭示了古老的惯例--但很可能是错误的。

[Paragraph 2]
No classical source whatsoever reports that Roman soldiers were paid in salt, said Peter Gainsford, a classicist in New Zealand, in an article on the topic several years ago.

几年前，新西兰古典学家彼得·盖恩斯福德就这个话题写文论述过：没有任何古典资料有记录用盐支付给罗马士兵。

They mention salt and pay in the same context, and later etymologists used the similarity of salarius (pertaining to salt) and salarium (stipend, salary) to assume a salt allowance, or even payment in salt.

他们在相同的上下文中提到盐和工资，后来的词源学家使用salarius（与盐有关）和salarium（津贴、薪水）的相似性构想出了“盐”津贴，甚至“盐”薪水。

But, Mr Gainsford calculated, Roman soldiers’ daily pay would have bought about 6.6kg (over 14 pounds) of the stuff; had they consumed it all, the army would have collapsed from hypertension before conquering the known world.
但根据盖恩斯福德的计算，罗马士兵的日薪可以购买大约6.6公斤（超过14磅）盐；如果他们全都吃掉，那么军队在征服已知世界之前，就会因高血压而溃败。

[Paragraph 3]
There could still be a link between salt and salary.

盐和薪水之间仍存在联系。

Mr Gainsford guessed that extra pay for sundries might have been known metaphorically as salt money, even if it was not intended specifically for salt, though that is just a supposition.

盖恩斯福德先生猜测，即使不是专门用盐额外支付的杂项费，也可能被比喻为盐钱，然而这只是一个假设。

Then again, the salt-for-pay story, which emerged only in the 18th century, was always guesswork.

再说一遍，18世纪才出现“以盐代薪”的故事版本是一种猜想。

This providence puts it among what some experts call “folk etymologies”: pleasing and memorable just-so stories.
这种猜想使它成为专家口中的“民间词源故事”之一：如此有趣又难忘的故事。

[Paragraph 4]
A particularly odd source of these is the collection of purported acronymic derivations of common words.

其中一个特别奇怪的词源故事是收集了常见单词的首字母缩略词。

You will hear people say with a straight face that two of the English language’s most venerable swear words derive from Fornication Under Consent of the King, and Ship High In Transit.But both words became part of English long before acronyms were common.

你会听到人们板着脸时会说出英语中最庄严的2个脏话“f*ck,sh*t”，它们分别来源于“国王颁发的同意书”和“船在运输”的首字母缩写。但这2个词早在首字母缩略词流行之前就有了。

Acronymic origins are also offered for golf, posh and cop, all false.
高尔夫、时髦、警察这些词来源于首字母缩略词，但都是假的。

[Paragraph 5]
Another source of folk etymologies is the purported involvement of famous people.

民间词源故事的另一个来源是传说有名人参与。

Some believe that marmalade was given to Mary, Queen of Scots when she was ill, her French nurse saying “Marie est malade”.

一些人认为，marmalade “果酱”一词源自于苏格兰玛丽女王生病时吃了果酱，她的法国护士说“玛丽病了”。

But notables have far less influence on language than that (thankfully).

但名人对语言的影响力远小于此（值得庆幸）。

The belief that pumpernickel bread is named after the kind fed to Napoleon’s horse, or pain pour Nicole, is another tall tale.

人们认为pumpernickel bread “南瓜面包”源自于拿破仑的马以这种面包为食，或者“痛苦的尼科尔”，这是另一个荒诞的故事。

[Paragraph 6]
Famous people do sometimes invent words, as Norman Mailer did with factoid. But such instances are very much the exception.

名人有时确实会发明词语，就像诺曼·梅勒发明了factoid“仿真陈述”那样。但这类例子非常少。

In fact words rarely have sudden and exciting origin stories.

事实上，单词几乎不会突然出现令人激动的词源故事。

In English, the great majority of them descend from a stock of roots shared among the Indo-European family of languages.

英语是印欧语系的一支。

[Paragraph 7]
All these sub-families are related.

所有这些子系语言都是相关的。

This is the kind of thing that professional etymologists work out; fascinating stuff, but harder to explain over a drink.
这是专业语源学家所研究的事情；有趣但很难一下子解释清楚。

[Paragraph 8]
That said, etymological discovery provides endless delights, and has never been easier.

也就是说，词源学研究能给提供无尽的乐趣，但并非易事。

The American Heritage Dictionary lists its Index of Indo-European Roots free online, so curious readers can research how poppycock and cacophony share an old root that means, well, Ship High In Transit.

《美国传统词典》在网上免费列出了英语的印欧根源索引，因此好学的读者可以研究poppycock和poppycock这两个词的共同词根，意思是sh*t。

The Oxford English Dictionary traces the gradual changes in a word’s form and meaning, buttressed by literary citations over centuries.

《牛津英语词典》记录了一个词的词形和词义的逐渐演变过程，且在几个世纪的文学作品中引用强化。

[Paragraph 9]

And if you want a salty fact, here’s one. Should your partner enjoin you to eat less salt, you can push the salad they have placed before you away.

如果你想要一个关于salty的真实故事，这里就有一个。如果你的伴侣要求你少吃盐，你可以把他们放在你面前的沙拉推开。

Salad, you can declare, comes after all from herba salata, Latin for salted vegetables.

你可以这样说，沙拉毕竟来自沙拉草，拉丁语中是咸菜的意思。

Alas, you will also have to swear off salsa (from the Latin for salted seasonings), and, for that matter, any sauce (which is just the French adaptation of salsa).

唉，你还得发誓不吃salsa（来自拉丁语，意为“腌制调味料”），也不吃任何酱汁（这只是salsa的法语改编）。

You will further have to forgo sausage and salami (both descended from Latin’s salcisus, applied to salted meat).
你还必须得放弃香肠和salami（都源于拉丁语salcisus，表示“咸肉”）。

[Paragraph 10]
You can do without stories of the salt-and-salary type. Genuine etymology is enough to keep life well-seasoned.
你可以不用“盐和薪水”的故事版本。真实的词源故事足以让你的生活丰富多彩。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量779左右）
原文出自：2023年2月4日《The Economist》Culture 版块。

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Irene本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
薪水salary最初的词源版本：盐被用作一种交易媒介，就像今天使用货币一样。为帝国服务的古罗马战士每天都会得到一把盐的报酬。罗马历史学家老普林尼在《自然史》中关于海水的讨论中说：“在罗马……士兵的工资原来是盐，工资一词就是从盐中衍生出来的。”金钱、食盐或食盐钱工资是雇主向雇员支付或补偿的固定和常规形式，以换取他们的服务或完成的工作。Salary一词源于中古英语单词“salarie”和拉丁语单词“salarium”，意思是“盐钱”。慢慢的，salarium(源于拉丁语，指“盐的”)一词逐渐用来指代发给士兵的军饷以及给官员的钱资，直至后来，用来统指“薪水，薪资”。由于盐不像今天那么容易买到，在古代它是一种有价值的商品，因此被用作货币。

网飞出了一部剧，完美示范了什么叫“一本正经地胡说八道”。它就是由尼古拉斯·凯奇主持的《脏话史》，没错，它讲了整整俩小时的“脏话”。这部剧一共有6集，让你了解常见英文脏话F*ck、Sh*t，D*mn、D*ck、B*tch等词的起源及用法，溯源它们的前世今生。虽然脏话看起来粗俗又充满禁忌，但它背后的故事却并不简单。该剧采访了历史学家、艺人及语源学、流行文化等方面的专家，同时还探讨了脏话对流行文化和历史各个层面的影响。

Norman Mailer诺曼·梅勒，美国著名作家，国际笔会美国分会主席，美国“全国文学艺术院”院士，“美国文学艺术研究院”院士。他成功地将小说的写作技巧融入到纪实作品中，如今这样一种写作手法被许多记者所模仿。无怪乎他被誉为20世纪最伟大的美国作家之一的同时，也被称为20世纪伟大的记者。

 
【重点句子】（3 个）
This providence puts it among what some experts call “folk etymologies”: pleasing and memorable just-so stories.
这种猜想使它成为专家口中的“民间词源故事”之一：如此有趣又难忘的故事。

A particularly odd source of these is the collection of purported acronymic derivations of common words.
其中一个特别奇怪的词源故事是收集了常见单词的首字母缩略词。

Another source of folk etymologies is the purported involvement of famous people.
民间词源故事的另一个来源是传说有名人参与。