英语词汇实用小百科 万圣节装扮

Xiaohua: Hello and welcome to Roundtable’s Word of the Week. This week we’re talking about words and phrases related with Halloween.

John: That’s right. There’re quite a few different monsters, typical costumes that you might see people wearing, so we’re just gonna go through a few of those today.

So first off I want to start with the ever popular vampire¹. Also sometimes people dress as Count Dracula. And vampire and Count Dracula are actually 2 similar, but separate things.

Xiaohua: 说到万圣节或者万圣节的装扮，很多人就会想到吸血鬼的装扮。而说到吸血鬼，大家又会想到Count Dracula，德拉库拉伯爵，但是这两者其实是有点不同的。

John: You might just look at it this way: Count Dracula is one type of vampire, one person who is also a vampire. Interestingly enough, the myth of Count Dracula as a vampire is based upon a real person from Romania, known as Vlad Tepes. And actually he ended up getting the nickname Vlad the Impaler² for the cruelty in which he would treat his enemies.

Xiaohua: 德拉库拉可以说是一种吸血鬼。而德拉库拉在小说中的原型是来自一个真实的人物，叫做Vlad the Impaler，穿刺王弗拉德。

John: Yeah. And the word vampire began in eastern Europe around the Balkans and the Caucasus Mountains, and its original usage has nothing to do with sucking blood, or taking a creature’s life essence or something like that. But rather it had to do with someone coming back from the dead as a spirit and just really bugging³ the people in the village where they were born.

Xiaohua: So something like a ghost.

John: Something like that. Exactly. And now we’re moving on to a werewolf, also known sometimes as a lycanthrope. So basically it’s just the ability for someone to turn from human into a wolf or dog-like creature.

Xiaohua: 狼人，又叫lycanthrope，就是可以随意或是在某些场合从人变成狼的生物。

John: And then of course there is the mummy, perhaps the easiest costume to do in all history of time. All you got to do is to take some toilet paper and wrap it around your body as many times as possible. But a mummy is basically just a human or an animal whose skins and organs had been preserved due to exposure to chemicals, cold, low humidity or anything like that.

Xiaohua: 木乃伊我们都知道，是来自古埃及的时候，人们对于死尸进行的一种步骤，用香油或香料涂到尸体上用来防腐。

John: And then of course there is the zombie, and I think anyone familiar or a fan of the Walking Dead will know what zombie currently means right now. Basically someone died or something died, and then it becomes reanimated, undead, and it wants to eat brains, living flesh or something like that. But actually the term zombie comes from Afro-Caribbean belief system Vodou or Vodom, wherein a shaman, a witch doctor, could actually cause someone to think they’re dead, and then bring them back to quote-on-quote life.

Xiaohua: Very interesting. 现在万圣节最流行的装束应该是装成zombie，僵尸了。我们通常认为僵尸是由死人转化的生物，活人如果被它咬到也会变成僵尸，但其实在海地，zombie是巫师可以用幻觉或药物控制人，让人昏睡过去，让他们以为自己已经死去。

John: And then of course there is Frankenstein. So funnily enough, at least in English, Frankenstein, the story by Mary Shelley, the monster is never actually named. The monster has no name. It’s just called the monster. However, in popular culture, now we refer to the monster in that story as Frankenstein. So Frankenstein is a very popular character, or at least used to be, not so much anymore. But we used to see him in TV shows, or comedy shows, like satires⁴, and things like that. But again, it has been a very popular costume during Halloween.

Xiaohua: Frankenstein，科学怪人，是指的玛丽雪莱的那本科幻小说。本来是科学家的名字叫Frankenstein，但是逐渐大家就把他制造出的这个怪人叫做Frankenstein了。

John: Yes, exactly. And last but not least, we have the western conception of the witch, or sometimes known as the hag. And basically it’s just an older woman, usually with a warp⁵ on their nose, and a big crooked⁶ nose, and a big hat with a point on top. And they’re supposed to be able to do black magic and things like that. Usually they’re associated with a black cat as well.

Xiaohua: 鹰钩鼻子、戴着高帽子、手拿魔杖，经常有扫帚和黑猫相伴，这就是我们常见的女巫，the witch. And that’s an easier costume as well.

John: Yeah, it’s an easier costume, but also interestingly enough, the western conception of witch is very, very different from the eastern conception. The word witch is tied up in our religious history you might say what you saw during especially the medieval times but also even later on, is that women would be accused of being a witch. And what that meant was that they were having parties with Satan, the devil, and they were sleeping with the devil and using black magic and things like that in order to control other people. More than likely this was all just superstition⁷, and people were persecuting⁸ women for being young usually, and different.

Xiaohua: Exactly. 在中世纪的时候欧洲因为女巫的罪名迫害了不少女性。And that’s all we have for this week’s Word of the Week.

1 vampire   

n.吸血鬼

参考例句：

• It wasn't a wife waiting there for him but a blood sucking vampire!家里的不是个老婆，而是个吸人血的妖精！
• Children were afraid to go to sleep at night because of the many legends of vampire.由于听过许多有关吸血鬼的传说，孩子们晚上不敢去睡觉。

2 impaler   

插入物

参考例句：

• Vlad the Impaler is infamous for his cruel deeds. 弗拉德公爵因其残忍暴行而臭名昭彰。

3 bugging   

[法] 窃听

参考例句：

• Okay, then let's get the show on the road and I'll stop bugging you. 好，那么让我们开始动起来，我将不再惹你生气。 来自辞典例句
• Go fly a kite and stop bugging me. 走开，别烦我。 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 口语

4 satires   

讽刺，讥讽( satire的名词复数 )； 讽刺作品

参考例句：

• Some of Aesop's Fables are satires. 《伊索寓言》中有一些是讽刺作品。
• Edith Wharton continued writing her satires of the life and manners of the New York aristocracy. 伊迪丝·沃顿继续写讽刺纽约贵族生活和习俗的作品。

5 warp   

vt.弄歪，使翘曲，使不正常，歪曲，使有偏见

参考例句：

• The damp wood began to warp.这块潮湿的木材有些翘曲了。
• A steel girder may warp in a fire.钢梁遇火会变弯。

6 crooked   

adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的

参考例句：

• He crooked a finger to tell us to go over to him.他弯了弯手指，示意我们到他那儿去。
• You have to drive slowly on these crooked country roads.在这些弯弯曲曲的乡间小路上你得慢慢开车。

7 superstition   

n.迷信，迷信行为

参考例句：

• It's a common superstition that black cats are unlucky.认为黑猫不吉祥是一种很普遍的迷信。
• Superstition results from ignorance.迷信产生于无知。

8 persecuting   

（尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的现在分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人

参考例句：

• This endurance made old Earnshaw furious, when he discovered his son persecuting the poor, fatherless child, as he called him. 当老恩萧发现他的儿子这样虐待他所谓的可怜的孤儿时，这种逆来顺受使老恩萧冒火了。
• He is possessed with the idea that someone is persecuting him. 他老是觉得有人要害他。