Ginormous: 特大,无比大
许多年前,一个小孩不小心掉进了圣诞老人的礼物袋而被带到北极,在北极的小精灵村庄里,他最喜欢说的话是:"Have you seen …? They're GINORMOUS!"小男孩名叫Buddy(巴迪),他是2003年好莱坞奇幻喜剧片Elf(《圣诞精灵》)里的主角,而ginormous则是英语中最常见的一种造词法:gigantic + enormous--ginormous:larger than gigantic and more massive than enormous(特大,无比大)。 可以说,英语中类似的合成词一抓一大把,最常见的如:motor + hotel--motel(汽车旅馆);smoke + fog--smog(烟雾);breakfast + lunch--brunch(早中饭),以此类推,来个稍难一点的:electro + execution --electrocution(电刑,电死),而我们挂在口边的chinglish其实就是Chinese + English。看来,语言真得需要一点想象力。 再回到ginormous,据词源学记载,二战其间的英国海军和空军军人发明了这个词。由此,ginormous不可避免带有极强烈的嘲弄口吻、甚或常常出现在不雅的口语中。举个例子,Look, Jenny's buttocks are ginormous(看,詹妮的屁股好大)!
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