手機(jī)版
Patrick Boyer is one of the authors I met earlier this year and the reason he chose butterfly is because he actually has a small publishing house called Blue Butterfly Books.
帕特里克•博耶是我今年早些時(shí)候認(rèn)識(shí)的作家之一。他選擇蝴蝶實(shí)際上是因?yàn)樗麚碛幸婚g小小的出版社：藍(lán)蝶圖書(shū)。
But butterfly is a good word.
不過(guò)呢，蝴蝶是個(gè)好詞。
Someone I know and love told me with much confidence that the word butterflycame about because some king or other tended to get his merds wixed up and that because he mispronounced “flutter by” as “butter fly” all his subjects were too scared to point out that the emperor had no clothes and so like a bunch of sniveling sycophants started calling the insects that had been fluttering by butterflies.
一位我認(rèn)識(shí)并深?lèi)?ài)的人曾信心滿(mǎn)滿(mǎn)地告訴我蝴蝶一詞的來(lái)歷：從前有個(gè)國(guó)王，他有一次說(shuō)都不會(huì)話，把“flutter by”說(shuō)成了“butterfly”，而他的手下們太過(guò)懼怕他，都不敢說(shuō)出皇帝其實(shí)光著腚。于是，一群哭哭啼啼的馬屁精就此開(kāi)始把這種飛來(lái)飛去的昆蟲(chóng)叫做蝴蝶了。
At the time I was told this I had no idea why a butterfly might be called a butterflyand so I kept my mouth shut (like a sniveling sycophant).
我聽(tīng)到這些話的時(shí)候，并不知道蝴蝶為什么叫做蝴蝶。所以我保持沉默（就像個(gè)哭哭啼啼的馬屁精）。
It turns out that entire etymology research departments with vast databases at world leading universities don’t really have much idea either so I’m in good company.
結(jié)果，那些世界領(lǐng)先大學(xué)里擁有海量數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)的語(yǔ)源學(xué)研究機(jī)構(gòu)也說(shuō)不出個(gè)所以然，真是吾道不孤啊。
They do have a few cute theories though.
不過(guò)它們倒是有些有趣的理論。
The word was already being used in Old English and shows up in the written record about the year 1000.
這個(gè)詞在古英語(yǔ)中已經(jīng)存在，最早的文字記錄在公元1000年左右。
Butterflies are usually objects of delight but the proposed etymology for the name comes in various flavors of whatever the opposite of delight is.
蝴蝶常常被看做快樂(lè)的象征�？烧Z(yǔ)源學(xué)考察的結(jié)果全是快樂(lè)的反義詞。
The mildest of these is simply that these insects were named because they tended to alight on milk or cheese left unattended. Or simply that some species have yellow wings.
這其中，最溫柔的一種解釋很簡(jiǎn)單：它們喜歡落在沒(méi)有罩好的牛奶或者奶酪上面�；蛘�，有些品種的翅膀是黃色的。
But this theory is extended by superstitious minds to make those milk-stealing butterflies actually witches who have taken a more attractive form to achieve their thievery.
但這個(gè)理論被迷信思想帶跑了！這些偷牛奶的蝴蝶其實(shí)是巫婆，蝴蝶的外表是她們?yōu)榱烁菀淄档綎|西而套上的漂亮馬甲。
I’ll save the worst till last and before I tell you I’ll just touch on the word butter and its etymology.
最刺激的就留到最后說(shuō)吧。讓我先來(lái)告訴你“butter”這個(gè)詞和它的詞源。
Butter is an unusual word that appears to have come into English during the days of Old English but from Latin. Most Latinate English words appeared with the French of the Norman Conquest of 1066 or appeared even later, introduced by people thinking they were smart to drop Latin based words into their writing.
在古英語(yǔ)時(shí)代，從拉丁語(yǔ)進(jìn)入英語(yǔ)的butter是個(gè)不尋常的單詞。大多數(shù)基于拉丁語(yǔ)的英語(yǔ)單詞是在1066年諾曼征服時(shí)的法語(yǔ)中出現(xiàn)的，有些則出現(xiàn)得更晚，它們是由那些自以為在文章里插上幾個(gè)基于拉丁文的單詞就很有文化的人們帶進(jìn)來(lái)的。
Butter, on the other hand, must have been one of those words learned by Germanic peoples in continental Europe while rubbing up against the Romans before Old English even got started.
butter則不同。這個(gè)詞極有可能是歐洲中部的日耳曼人厲兵秣馬準(zhǔn)備對(duì)付羅馬人的時(shí)候?qū)W會(huì)的，而那時(shí)，古英語(yǔ)的時(shí)代還沒(méi)開(kāi)始。
Not everyone believes it but the Latin precursor to butter is supposed to have come from Greek where the leading “bo” sound might have come from their word for a cow, coming even earlier from Indo-European and also giving us words likebovine.
這個(gè)說(shuō)法倒不是人人相信，但是有理由認(rèn)為butter的拉丁文前身來(lái)自希臘語(yǔ)，開(kāi)頭的"bo"可能是來(lái)自他們稱(chēng)呼奶牛的單詞，而這一詞又在更早前來(lái)自印歐語(yǔ)系。印歐語(yǔ)系還給過(guò)我們其他的單詞，比如bovine。
The second half of the word butter is supposed to represent turos the Greek word for “cheese” and also have Indo-European roots.
butter一詞的另一半據(jù)悉代表著希臘語(yǔ)單詞turos，即英語(yǔ)中的“奶酪”，同樣有印歐語(yǔ)系的淵源。
This would make butter literally mean “cow cheese.”
如此一來(lái)，butter字面上的意思就是“奶牛酪”。
The last etymological theory on our word of the day butterfly is that these pretty little creatures were named because their droppings were yellow and looked like butter.
我們今天的單詞，butterfly的最后一種詞源考察結(jié)論是：這些可愛(ài)的小家伙得名于它們的便便——黃色，看起來(lái)像黃油一樣的便便。
This unlikely theory was put forward by a 19th century etymologist who I haven’t talked about before on podictionary. Hensleigh Wedgwood found a Dutch name for butterflies boterschijte and thought this pointed to nomenclature by excrement.
這種不太能讓人相信的理論出自一位19世紀(jì)的語(yǔ)源學(xué)家，我還沒(méi)有在單詞愛(ài)好者專(zhuān)欄中談過(guò)他。亨斯利•韋奇伍德發(fā)現(xiàn)了蝴蝶的荷蘭名字boterschijte，認(rèn)為這個(gè)名字指向排泄物命名法。
If the Wedgwood name sounds familiar it should. Not only did Hensleigh write an etymological dictionary he just happened to be the grandson of Josiah Wedgwood, the guy who founded the fine china company.
韋奇伍德的名字聽(tīng)起來(lái)挺耳熟吧？應(yīng)該的。不僅是因?yàn)楹嗨估麑?xiě)過(guò)一本語(yǔ)源學(xué)詞典，還因?yàn)樗『镁褪羌s西亞•韋奇伍德，那位優(yōu)質(zhì)瓷器公司的創(chuàng)始人的孫子。