英语听力精选进阶版 11230

 

Luvvy 

Professor David Crystal 

Have you noticed how common the 'y' ('ie') ending is in English 

as a sort of colloquial¹ suffix²? A familiarity marker perhaps is a 

better way of talking about it. You talk about the telly – it's a 

television. You talk about your auntie – instead of your aunt. Of 

course, there's mummy and daddy as well. People from Australia 

are Aussies as well as Australians, and of course in proper names 

you talk about Charles and Charlie, or Susan and Susie. Very very 

common suffix.  

Not surprising then to find that new words every now and then 

come into the language which use it, and the one that has 

attracted a lot of interest recently is 'luvvy' and 'luvvies' - l-u-v-v-y 

and l-u-v-v-i-e-s. Especially in Britain, it's a kind of mockery for 

actors and actresses, considered to be rather affected³ – actors, 

you know, who turn up and call each other 'darling' all the time 

and go 'mwah' at each other, when they're kissing each other, and people say "oh, 

listen to those luvvies talking, those poor luvvies – there's lots of luvvy talk going 

on" - l-u-v-v-y.  

Now what's interesting is it's the spelling that's made this word so new, because 

there already was a word 'lovey' in the language, going back right to the 1960s, 

spelt l-o-v-e-y. It's a much older term of endearment⁴. I might say "oh, come on, 

lovey!" meaning….you might hear from a bus conductor for instance⁵, and it refers 

simply to you know, 'my dear', and it could be to a man or a woman, although 

more usually to a woman. So, what we've got is a new word 'luvvy' with a 

different spelling from the old word 'lovey' – now that doesn't happen very often 

in language change. 

1 colloquial   

adj.口语的，会话的

参考例句：

• It's hard to understand the colloquial idioms of a foreign language.外语里的口头习语很难懂。
• They have little acquaintance with colloquial English. 他们对英语会话几乎一窍不通。

2 suffix   

n.后缀；vt.添后缀

参考例句：

• We add the suffix "ly" to make the adjective "quick" into the adverb " quickly ".我们在形容词“ quick”后加“ly” 构成副词“quickly”。
• It described the meaning of suffix array and also how to built it.它描述的含义，后缀数组以及如何建立它。

3 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

4 endearment   

n.表示亲爱的行为

参考例句：

• This endearment indicated the highest degree of delight in the old cooper.这个称呼是老箍桶匠快乐到了极点的表示。
• To every endearment and attention he continued listless.对于每一种亲爱的表示和每一种的照顾，他一直漫不在意。

5 instance   

n.例，例证，实例

参考例句：

• Can you quote me a recent instance?你能给我举一个最近的例子吗？
• He's a greedy boy,yesterday,for instance,he ate all our biscuits!他是个贪吃的孩子――比如，他昨天把我们的饼干都吃了！