词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Slangman: Corporate Crime

Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": August 1, 2002
Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: August 4, 2002

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- a timely accounting¹ of some slang related to business fraud.

BUSH: "Every corporate² official who has chosen to commit a crime can expect to face the consequences. No more easy money for corporate criminals, just hard time."

RS: "Hard time." That's slang for prison time. That's what President Bush was talking about when he signed a corporate responsibility law on Tuesday.

AA: Well, we called up Slangman David Burke to get the lowdown on some terms we hear when people talk about the current financial scandals. Slangman just happened to have a letter that he says he sent to his mother.

BURKE: "'Dear Slangmom, my vacation was great! Too bad it was so short. Anyway, you won't believe what happened while I was gone. Well, you know that our company has been making a killing³ each year.' Now, when you 'make a killing,' you don't really kill anything, it just means you make a lot of money. 'We made a killing, but last week the employees and investors⁴ were told that the profits of our company suddenly nose-dived.' Which means went down very fast, like an airplane that's about to crash.

"'Well, the first thing I thought was, great, we're all about to get Enroned.' I love this one -- which means to be cheated out of money, because of the big Enron scandal where investors and employees did get cheated out of money. So the last thing you want to do is get Enroned, and this I would say is our most current slang word right now. 'Our company was always in the black,' which means in good financial condition. 'And now suddenly we're in the red?' which is in bad financial condition."

RS: Why black and red? Well, when accountants kept handwritten ledger⁵ books, it became traditional to use black ink to record earnings⁶ and red ink to record losses.

AA: Now back to Slangman's tale of woe⁷.

BURKE: "'So how would a cash cow' -- which is a profitable company or product -- 'suddenly go belly⁸ up?' which means to fail. We say 'belly up,' meaning to fail, because when a fish dies in the water it floats up to the top belly up. We also say 'to tank.' I don't know why, I love that one. 'The company tanked,' or it went 'bust,' which also means it failed miserably⁹. 'Well, it didn't make sense, because business ways always booming' -- a very popular expression meaning when business goes very well.

"'Something was fishy¹⁰.' Of course, that means suspicious. I think we say that because when something is fishy, a fish that's really old starts to smell, and so it kind of makes your face have a weird¹¹ look on it, like 'yuck!,' and when something is suspicious you have the same kind of a look. 'Well, thanks to a whistle-blower in the company' -- and a whistle-blower is an informant, somebody who reports you to the authorities, they blow the whistle on you. 'So thanks to a whistle-blower in the company, we discovered that our bean counter was cooking the books.'"

RS: Boy, how's that for a mouthful of slang -- although some people really do talk that way!

BURKE: "A 'bean counter' is a popular word for an accountant. And the bean counter or accountant was 'cooking the books.' Now that means to falsify records. 'Well, not only that, but the bean counter was paying himself under the table.' 'Under the table,' in finances, means to pay yourself without reporting the money.

"'Of course, our bean counter got canned immediately.' 'Canned' is a wonderful expression; we hear it all the time. We also say to 'get sacked,' to 'get booted' or to 'get the boot,' which gives you the image of somebody getting kicked in the backside by a boss, so they get thrown out of the building."

RS: Meaning lost his job ...

AA: In plain English. Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles is the author of close to thirty books on slang and idioms. If you'd like more information about Slangman, or how to order his books, visit his new Web site at slangman.com.

RS: Our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. Before we go, we want to thank Nancy Smart, our editor since the beginning. As Nancy rides off into retirement¹² on her new horse, Taj, we wish her happy trails. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

MUSIC: "Happy Trails"/Daughters of the Purple Sage

 

1 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

2 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

3 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

4 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

5 ledger   

n.总帐，分类帐；帐簿

参考例句：

• The young man bowed his head and bent over his ledger again.那个年轻人点头应诺，然后又埋头写起分类帐。
• She is a real accountant who even keeps a detailed household ledger.她不愧是搞财务的，家庭分类账记得清楚详细。

6 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

7 woe   

n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌

参考例句：

• Our two peoples are brothers sharing weal and woe.我们两国人民是患难与共的兄弟。
• A man is well or woe as he thinks himself so.自认祸是祸，自认福是福。

8 belly   

n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛

参考例句：

• The boss has a large belly.老板大腹便便。
• His eyes are bigger than his belly.他眼馋肚饱。

9 miserably   

adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地

参考例句：

• The little girl was wailing miserably. 那小女孩难过得号啕大哭。
• It was drizzling, and miserably cold and damp. 外面下着毛毛细雨，天气又冷又湿，令人难受。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 fishy   

adj. 值得怀疑的

参考例句：

• It all sounds very fishy to me.所有这些在我听起来都很可疑。
• There was definitely something fishy going on.肯定当时有可疑的事情在进行中。

11 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

12 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。