| 单词 | 美语 |
| 释义 | 〔different〕Butdifferent than is more acceptably used, particularly in American usage, where the object of comparison is expressed by a full clause: 但different than 的比较对象用一完整的句子表示，特别是在美语用法中，这种用法更能接受： 〔critter〕Critter, a pronunciation spelling of creature, actually reflects a pronunciation that would have been very familiar to Shakespeare:16th- and 17th-century English had not yet begun to pronounce the-ture suffix with its modern (ch) sound. This archaic pronunciation still exists in regional Americancritter and in Irishcreature, pronounced (krāʹtŭr) and used in the same senses as the American regionalism. The most common meaning ofcritter is "a living creature,” whether wild or domestic; it also can mean "a child" when used as a term of sympathetic endearment,or it can mean "an unfortunate person.”In old-fashioned regional speech,critter and beast denoted a large domestic animal. The more restricted senses "a cow,” "a horse,” or "a mule" are still characteristic of the speech in specific regions of the United States.The use ofcritter among younger speakers almost always carries with it a jocular or informal connotation. Critter 是 creature 这一词的发音拼法， 实际上反映了一种莎士比亚极其通晓的发音法：16和17世纪的英语中还没有开始用现代英语中的(ch)音来发-ture 这一后缀的音。 这一古发音法仍存在于地区性美语critter 中， 而且在爱尔兰语中creature (kra'tur)的发音和用法与地区性美语相同。 critter 这一词的最通用的意思是“生物”，无论是野生的还是家养的； 作为昵称时，它可以作“小孩”解释；它还可以指“一个不幸运的人”。在老式的地区性语言中，critter 和 beast 意指大型的家畜。 它的更狭窄的含义“牛”、“马”或“驴”则仍然是美国某些特定地区的方言中的特有含义。年轻人对于critter 的用法则几乎总认为是带有恢谐或非正式的含义 〔dizzy〕"The American language had begun its dizzy onward march before the Revolution"(H.L. Mencken)“独立战争以前美语就已开始了快速发展”(H.L.门琴)〔naff〕In the dual tradition of looking to one's betters for models of how to use language and American obeisance to British usage,let us look at two British words spellednaff. One is an adjective,meaning "clichéd, unstylish" (first recorded in 1969),that may be derived from dialectal wordssuch asnaffhead, "simpleton,” or niffy-naffy, "stupid.” The othernaff is a verb, usually used in the imperative in combination withoff (first recorded in 1959). This is the delicate injunction that members of the royal family such as Princess Anne have used in requesting members of the press to beat it.The origin ofnaff is unknown, but it has been suggested thatnaff may be related to an older English slang term naf, meaning "the female sexual organ.” Naf has been derived from a backward spelling offan, from fanny. 在看待如何使用语言的模式和美语遵从于英语那个更好的两个传统上，让我们看两个拼写为naff 的美语单词。 一个是形容词，表示“过时的，老调的”（首次记录于1969年），可能源于方言单词，如naffhead “傻子”或 niffy-naffy “愚蠢的”。 另一个naff 是动词， 通常用于命令语气与off 连用（首次记录于1959年）。 这是王室家族成员如安娜公主在要求报刊成员禁用时所使用的微妙禁令。Naff 不知源自何处， 但它表明naff 有与旧英语俚语 naf 相关的迹象表示“女性生殖器官”。 Naf 源于从fanny 而来的逆序拼写形式 fan 〔shambles〕The original sense ofshambles to denote a meat market is by now so obscurein American usage that it must be counted the height of pedantry to insist,as a few critics continue to do,that the word should be used metaphorically only to refer to a scene of carnage.作为指肉市的单词shambles 的原始意义， 现在已很模糊，以致在美语用法中认为这个词只能隐喻地指屠杀情景，若还象一些批评家继续做的那样，准会被看作是极度迂腐的做法 |
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