词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Slangman: Whimsy

Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": June 13, 2002
Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: June 16, 2002

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster, some whimsy¹ to liven up your vocabulary!

RS: Slangman David Burke brings us some words and phrases that, in most cases, have been around a long time, and are just plain fun to say.

AA: How did David find these words? Well, it seems that he just got a letter from his mother ...

BURKE: "To my dear son, Slangman, today I went to your rich Aunt Janet's housewarming because she wanted me to see her new nice apartment. She kept telling me how nice it was. Nice-shmice. It was so fancy-shamcny."

AA: "You're making fun of it."

BURKE: "When you make fun of it, you kind of have contempt for it, you feel negative toward it. But fancy-shmancy is really popular, and that word we tend to use not just negatively but also when we're kind of impressed too. It depends on the context. We could easily walk into a house and say, 'Wow this is really fancy-shmancy.'

"So then she continues and says, 'I could never live in a place that was so frou-frou.' This is a very common word which means overly decorated. And then she goes on to say, 'All the paintings were so artsy-fartsy.' I love this one."

RS: So do a lot of people. It's an adjective meaning "pretentiously³ or affectedly⁴ artistic," according to American Heritage Dictionary -- which also warns that its usage might be considered vulgar.

AA: Now back to rich Aunt Janet's new apartment, which is filled with lots of little things. Trivial stuff. And what word does "Slangmom" choose for that? One that the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary dates back to 1682.

RS: That word is "knickknacks."

BURKE: "There were so many knickknacks there it was hard to find a place to sit. And as for her taste in decorating, her apartment was a mishmash of different styles.' Now we'd say mishmash or mishmosh, I've heard both, which means a jumbled⁵, confused mix. 'At least she keeps her apartment spick-and-span.' Well, spick-and-span is extremely clean, you can't get much cleaner than spick-and-span. And what's interesting, because Americans use reductions, just for casual conversations, sometimes a reduction must be used or it isn't really correct. So spick-and-span is never pronounced that way. We always say 'spick-n-span,' and it needs to be pronounced that way.

"So my mother continues and she says, 'Anyway, your aunt introduced me to the other guests who were all so hoity-toity.' This is a great word. 'Hoity-toity' means really pretentious², overly pretentious. 'I felt like riff-raff compared to these people.' Well, 'riff-raff' is a derogatory term for common people, people who don't have a lot of money, they're just average, everyday people, but they're considered lower class, at least compared to people who are hoity-toity."

RS: "The people who are hoity-toity are looking down at the riff-raff."

BURKE: "Exactly, hoity-toity people look down on the riff-raff. Well, 'then some woman wearing expensive shoes which frankly⁶, in my opinion, looked more like flip-flops.'"

RS: "Sandals."

BURKE: "Flip-flops are sandals, right. 'Well, this woman came up to chitchat with me.' To chitchat is either a verb or a noun. To chitchat means to have a light, friendly conversation. 'She went on-and-on.' Now we use a lot of repeating words. On-and-on simply means to continue to talk non-stop. 'This woman went on-and-on with all her exaggerated stories.

"In fact, after 20 minutes, it was clear she wasn't on the up-and-up,' which means she wasn't really being completely honest. Now we don't say 'up-and-up.' We must use the reduction, apostrophe-n, to be on the up 'n up, to be honest. So she wasn't really on the up-and-up, 'and we couldn't see eye-to-eye.' Again, another repeating group."

AA: "One thing, getting back to up-and-up and on-and-on, when you write those out, though, you do spell out the a-n-d rather than ... "

BURKE: "You know, it's interesting. There's really a choice there, because if you're writing something more formally, you would say 'the person spoke⁷ to me and went on and on.' However, in a comic strip, for example, we tend to write how we speak, so in a comic strip you would probably see 'on 'n on.'"

RS: Now, we could go on 'n on, but we're running out of time, so we'll playfully say 'tah-tah' 鈥?or goodbye 鈥?for now to our friend, Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles.

AA: You can learn all about his English teaching books and other materials at slangman.com. Now to find the script and audio of this and other Wordmaster programs, go to voanews.com/wordmaster.

RS: And our e-mail address is..........With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

MUSIC: "On and On"/Stephen Bishop 1977

 

1 whimsy   

n.古怪，异想天开

参考例句：

• They are like oracular messages,but witty-jaunty at times-and sometimes trembling on the edge of whimsy.它们都像神谕，但很机智，有时极其轻快，有时又濒于怪诞。
• He had a whimsy about flying to the moon.他有个想飞上月球的怪念头。

2 pretentious   

adj.自命不凡的，自负的，炫耀的

参考例句：

• He is a talented but pretentious writer.他是一个有才华但自命不凡的作家。
• Speaking well of yourself would only make you appear conceited and pretentious.自夸只会使你显得自负和虚伪。

3 pretentiously   

参考例句：

• This author writes pretentiously. 这个作者有点自我吹捧。 来自互联网
• The term describes a pretentiously showy or impressive facade to draw attention away from dirty conditions. 它表示自负的华丽或令人印象深刻的假象来吸引远离肮脏情况的注意。 来自互联网

4 affectedly   

参考例句：

• Two people affectedly bashful half talent says: "Without. " 两人扭捏了半天才说：“没有。” 来自互联网
• The officials don't accept people's petition, if they do, they just affectedly. 这些官员不会接受人民的请愿，如果他们会接受，那也只是在做作而已。 来自互联网

5 jumbled   

adj.混乱的；杂乱的

参考例句：

• Books, shoes and clothes were jumbled together on the floor. 书、鞋子和衣服胡乱堆放在地板上。
• The details of the accident were all jumbled together in his mind. 他把事故细节记得颠三倒四。

6 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

7 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。