词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Allen Walker Read / 'O.K.'

Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": October 24, 2002
Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: October 27, 2002

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- a tribute¹ to Allen Walker Read, who died this month at the age of 96. Mr. Read devoted² his life to a kind of linguistic³ detective work on the origins of American speech.

RS: As an English professor at Columbia University in New York, Allen Read became most widely known for tracing⁴ the term "O.K." all the way back to the 1830s.

AA: As his friend Richard Bailey at the University of Michigan tells the story, jokes with language were popular at the time, including those that used ridiculous abbreviations⁵.

BAILEY: "And in the course of this humorous exchange appeared in 1938 in Boston the expression 'O.K.,' standing⁶ for 'all correct' -- O-L-L K-O-R-R-E-C-T.'"

RS: "Now that's misspelled."

BAILEY: "Well, that was the joke, and the real point here is that these young men who made up all these expressions turned out dozens of them, and they all fell dead instantly⁷ except this one, and it was picked up just very soon after that by the campaign for the president of the United States, Martin Van Buren. Now, Van Buren lived in Kinderhook, New York. So they called him 'Old Kinderhook.' Now the reason that they could do this is that O.K. was still around and had a kind of slangy, fresh, exciting quality to it, so these political advisers⁸ seized on the O.K. and made use of it. And that's what people have done every since.

RS: "But why did it have such staying powers?"

BAILEY: "Well, there actually isn't an answer to that. Of course, it's short and easy to remember, but that would describe many creations⁹. This is the one that succeeded. And one of Allen Walker Read's wonderful essays is about the folklore¹⁰ of O.K. and the fanciful tales that people have thought up to explain it."

RS: "But he actually was the one to go back and take a look and pin it down and actually put a date on it."

BAILEY: "That's right, and of course the contest is still open to all comers. Anybody who wants to go and find an example of O.K. before March 23, 1839, will win the prize."

AA: "Which is?"

BAILEY: "Well, being the O.K. expert. (laughter)"

AA: "Now, O.K. has made its way around the world. I've heard it described as the first truly global term or word or whatever you want to call it."

BAILEY: "That's exactly right. It's everywhere in the English speaking world and in almost all languages of the world. When you see in Asia garments with O.K. printed on them, it's because it somehow expresses this American freshness and flavor¹¹. What Allen Read wanted to do was to say this is so typically American."

RS: "What do you think the contribution here is. What do you hope the people who read this work will come away with?"

BAILEY: "Allen loved to talk about what he called the play spirit in language and the way people express joy through fooling with words. So Allen Walker Read was a wonderful man for identifying and bringing to our attention the playful in language."

AA: "Now do you think if he were still around, he would be chronicling, let's say, the Internet speech where you've got spelling forever with the number 4 e-v-er and 'laughing out loud' as 'lol.'

BAILEY: "Sure he would. Oh, absolutely. I mean, his apartment in New York was filled with papers, because he would read newspapers and write down things he saw on subway walls. And he made this huge data file, so having the Internet would be wonderful for him. His first book was sayings that he found written on outhouse walls on his travels around western America, and nobody had ever studied these, but he saw them as expressions of ordinary people often being playful with language."

RS: "And expressions of who we are as Americans."

BAILEY: "Yes, exactly."

AA: Richard Bailey is the editor of a collection of Allen Read's essays called "Milestones¹² in the History of English in America," published this year by Duke University Press.

RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. We're on the Internet at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is。。。。。。。。。With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

 

1 tribute   

n.颂词，称赞，(表示敬意的)礼物；贡品

参考例句：

• She accepted their tribute graciously.她慈祥地接受了他们的致意。
• Many conquered nations had to pay tribute to the rulers of ancient Rome.许多被征服的国家必须向古罗马的统治者朝贡。

2 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

3 linguistic   

adj.语言的，语言学的

参考例句：

• She is pursuing her linguistic researches.她在从事语言学的研究。
• The ability to write is a supreme test of linguistic competence.写作能力是对语言能力的最高形式的测试。

4 tracing   

追踪； 追查； 描摹； 摹图

参考例句：

• She is tracing laboriously now. 她正在费力地写。
• He knew they were tracing him. 他知道他们正在追踪他。

5 abbreviations   

n.缩写( abbreviation的名词复数 )；缩写词；略语

参考例句：

• Scratch the subject of defence and acronyms, abbreviations, and buzzwords fly out. 话题触及国防，缩合字，缩写字和行话就满天飞。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All abbreviations are to be written out. 所有的缩写都要完整地写出来 来自辞典例句

6 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

7 instantly   

adv.立即，立刻

参考例句：

• She was used to having her orders instantly obeyed.她习惯了让人即刻服从她的命令。
• Though he slept soundly,he awoke instantly.他虽然睡得很香，但是马上就醒了。

8 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。

9 creations   

创造( creation的名词复数 )； 创造物； （尤指所述由上帝）创造天地； 宇宙

参考例句：

• This artist's creations are worth collecting. 这个艺术家的作品值得收藏。
• The intellectual creations of individual nations become common property. 各民族的精神产品成了公共的财产。 来自英汉非文学 - 共产党宣言

10 folklore   

n.民间信仰，民间传说，民俗

参考例句：

• Zhuge Liang is a synonym for wisdom in folklore.诸葛亮在民间传说中成了智慧的代名词。
• In Chinese folklore the bat is an emblem of good fortune.在中国的民间传说中蝙蝠是好运的象征。

11 flavor   

n.味，滋味，味道；风味；vt.调味，加味于

参考例句：

• I like the flavor of chocolate.我喜欢巧克力的味道。
• Each flavor was totally unique.每一种味道都是独一无二的。

12 milestones   

n.重要事件( milestone的名词复数 )；重要阶段；转折点；里程碑

参考例句：

• Several important milestones in foreign policy have been passed by this Congress and they can be chalked up as major accomplishments. 这次代表大会通过了对外政策中几起划时代的事件，并且它们可作为主要成就记录下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dale: I really envy your milestones over the last few years, Don. 我真的很羡慕你在过去几年中所建立的丰功伟绩。 来自互联网