密歇根新闻广播 head honcho领导人?

 

The phrase "head honcho" is used to refer to people at the top: CEOs, presidents, directors and such.

However, "honcho" on its own means "leader." In other words, the head of something. That means, as is often the case in English, this commonly used phrase is redundant¹.

"Honcho" comes into English from Japanese in the 1940s. It originated around American prisoners of war in Japan. In Japanese, a "honcho" is a group leader or squad² leader. American soldiers continued to use "honcho" during the Korean War. It comes into common usage in the U.S. in the 1960s.

The question remains³, why do we have "head" in front of "honcho"? If the honcho is already the leader, it's redundant to say "head honcho." There's a chance that since "honcho" came in as a borrowing, "head" got tacked⁴ on to clarify its meaning.

"Head honcho" is used fairly commonly, but lately its popularity seems to be dropping off a little. Professor Anne Curzan says it could be that people aren't sure of its origin and whether it's offensive.

Regardless, it's not like we don't have plenty of other ways to talk about someone in charge or at the top. There's big fish, big cheese, top dog, big wig⁵ – take your pick.

For more on the story behind “head honcho,” check out Lakshmi Gandhi’s awesome⁶ article on NPR’s Code Switch blog.

1 redundant   

adj.多余的，过剩的；(食物)丰富的；被解雇的

参考例句：

• There are too many redundant words in this book.这本书里多余的词太多。
• Nearly all the redundant worker have been absorbed into other departments.几乎所有冗员，都已调往其他部门任职。

2 squad   

n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组

参考例句：

• The squad leader ordered the men to mark time.班长命令战士们原地踏步。
• A squad is the smallest unit in an army.班是军队的最小构成单位。

3 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

4 tacked   

用平头钉钉( tack的过去式和过去分词 )； 附加，增补； 帆船抢风行驶，用粗线脚缝

参考例句：

• He tacked the sheets of paper on as carefully as possible. 他尽量小心地把纸张钉上去。
• The seamstress tacked the two pieces of cloth. 女裁缝把那两块布粗缝了起来。

5 wig   

n.假发

参考例句：

• The actress wore a black wig over her blond hair.那个女演员戴一顶黑色假发罩住自己的金黄色头发。
• He disguised himself with a wig and false beard.他用假发和假胡须来乔装。

6 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.