词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Slangman: Stress-Related Terms

(Recorded March 19, earlier in the day of the outbreak of war in Iraq, for "Coast to Coast")

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we offer a few minutes of relief with a look at some stress-related slang.

RS: We got on the phone to Los Angeles to our friend David Burke, better known to our listeners as Slangman. He read us a letter from his 80-year-old mother. An imaginary letter, that is -- although he really does have an 80-year-old mother.

AA: Anyway, it seems that Slangmom was feeling "stressed out," but not by the current tensions in the world.

SLANGMAN: "'Stressed out' is slang for tense and nervous. We also just say 'stressed.' And by the way, do you know what stressed spelled backwards¹ is?

RS: "What's that."

SLANGMAN: "Stressed spells desserts."

RS: "That's a positive note."

SLANGMAN: "Which is something that certainly does not make me stressed out at all. Anyway, here is the letter I received from my mother. She says, 'This weekend I went on a date with a man your Aunt Ruth introduced me to. Well, I was on pins and needles waiting for him to arrive.' 'Pins and needles' means excited and nervous, you get a feeling that you're apprehensive², which just means very nervous. 'After an hour of waiting and waiting, I was flipping⁴ out.' It simply means to get very upset, you 'flip³ out.'

"So, 'I was flipping out because you know that nothing gets my goat more than when someone is late.' To 'get someone's goat' -- the kind of visual that must create in someone's head has nothing to do with what it means, which is to get angry. So, 'nothing gets my goat more than when someone is late. Well, I opened the door, and he could tell I was on the edge' -- that's getting very close to being angry -- 'and he said "what's eating you?"'"

RS: "What's the matter with you."

SLANGMAN: "Right. It's like a mosquito eating at you, it's very annoying. So, what's making you so annoyed and upset? So I told him it rubs me the wrong way when people are late.' Well, to 'rub someone the wrong way' simply means to annoy them, to make them angry. 'I know I'm just being touchy⁵' -- if you're touchy, you're overly sensitive -- 'I know I'm being touchy, but it really pushes my buttons.' That simply means make me angry like it always does; it's something that I always react negatively to. It 'pushes my buttons.' 'The worst of it was he seemed like such a creep and he was wearing orange socks.'

RS: "Oh my goodness."

SLANGMAN: "'I'm serious, and I'm not yanking your chain.' To yank someone's chain means to tease someone, to joke with someone."

AA: "Doesn't it also mean to sort of incite⁶. 'Quit yanking my chain.' Well, it's like yanking the chain on a dog, I suppose, it just makes him angry."

SLANGMAN: "Exactly. When you 'yank someone's chain,' it can either be jokingly -- for example, 'Oh, Avi, stop yanking my chain' or if I say to you 'Avi, stop yanking my chain!' it depends on the delivery. That means 'hey, really, stop it, you're really annoying me.' 'So, I thought I should get a grip.' Well, getting a grip simply means to become controlled, to get control of your emotions, become calm, 'get a grip.' 'So we went to a little restaurant around the corner but I kept looking over my shoulder.' And that's what you do when you're nervous about getting noticed by someone, either you may know or even someone you don't know that could cause you harm, either physically⁷ or even emotionally by making fun of you.'

"So in this case, my mother is saying 'I kept looking over my shoulder hoping that no one would see me with him. Well, by the end of dinner, I thought I was going to lose it.' What does 'it' represent? Control of your emotions or your temper. 'Because he never stopped talking. He was freaking me out.' It means to make somebody very, very upset. 'So I finally said to him, "Will you please, please take a chill pill."'"

RS: "Calm down."

SLANGMAN: "Calm down. So, 'unfortunately the man drove me up the wall from the very beginning."

RS: "Not literally⁸."

SLANGMAN: "That's another thing I love about these expressions and these idioms, when you take them literally, I mean they're so strange -- 'what's eating you,' 'it rubs me the wrong way,' 'pushes my buttons,' well, another one: 'the man drove me up the wall.' Then my mother continues and says, 'Listen, I have to run. I'm going to your Aunt Ruth's house to walk up one side of her and down the other.' Have you guys heard that one before?"

AA: "No."

RS: "I can imagine what it means."

SLANGMAN: "I love this expression. When you say to someone 'I'm going to walk up one side of her and down the other,' that means you are really angry and you are going to do some serious reprimanding. And then, of course, my mother ends it with, 'Kiss, kiss, hug hug, none other than, Slangmom."

AA: ... also known as Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles. You can learn about Slangman's English teaching materials at his Web site, slangman.com.

RS: We're at voanews.com/wordmaster, and our e-mail address is [email protected]. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

1 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

2 apprehensive   

adj.担心的，恐惧的，善于领会的

参考例句：

• She was deeply apprehensive about her future.她对未来感到非常担心。
• He was rather apprehensive of failure.他相当害怕失败。

3 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

4 flipping   

讨厌之极的

参考例句：

• I hate this flipping hotel! 我讨厌这个该死的旅馆！
• Don't go flipping your lid. 别发火。

5 touchy   

adj.易怒的；棘手的

参考例句：

• Be careful what you say because he's touchy.你说话小心，因为他容易生气。
• He's a little touchy about his weight.他对自己的体重感到有点儿苦恼。

6 incite   

v.引起，激动，煽动

参考例句：

• I wanted to point out he was a very good speaker, and could incite a crowd.我想说明他曾是一个非常出色的演讲家，非常会调动群众的情绪。
• Just a few words will incite him into action.他只需几句话一将，就会干。

7 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

8 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。