英语博客-北美风情 178、Tightwad

 　　No one likes to be thought of as cheap, but some of us just don’t like to spend money. Harp¹ and Maura are two of these people! This is an episode about slang terms for people who are always saving their money. Most of these expressions are considered rude, so be careful how you use them. If you mean it as a compliment, you’d be better off to call a person frugal². Listen to this episode to hear all the slang terms for cheap and the meaning of frugal!

　　Harp: So if someone is cheap and likes to save all their money, you could call them a tightwad.

　　Maura:Yes. Now, let’s explain this word, tightwad. A wad is actually some small thing, like in the shape of a ball; it’s really not a specific thing. It’s just some small thing that’s in the shape of a ball. Now, if you imagine your money is all rolled up, tightly, it’s like a wad. And a tightwad means that you don’t wanna open it up, you don’t wanna take any money out, you don’t wanna spend it.

　　Harp:Yes. So when you’re a tightwad, that means you’re cheap and you don’t want to spend all your money. And one thing we need to mention right away is that you would never say this to someone. It’s a very rude thing to call someone. So you could maybe say it behind their back…

　　Maura:Yeah. The thing with being called a tightwad is that it’s never a compliment. No one really likes to be seen as someone who doesn’t wanna spend money. It’s not a positive thing. And so you might use it as a joke. That’s the only way you could use it, because it is rude.

1 harp   

n.竖琴；天琴座

参考例句：

• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。
• He played an Irish melody on the harp.他用竖琴演奏了一首爱尔兰曲调。

2 frugal   

adj.节俭的，节约的，少量的，微量的

参考例句：

• He was a VIP,but he had a frugal life.他是位要人，但生活俭朴。
• The old woman is frugal to the extreme.那老妇人节约到了极点。