词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Language of Showbiz

The show business trade paper Variety turns 100 this year, and it continues to vex¹ and amuse its readers with a language all its own. In this slanguage, as Variety staffers have dubbed² it, media giant Disney is known as the Mouse, a reference to its mascot³, Mickey Mouse. And a buzz can give a movie legs -- that is, if the right people are talking about a film, so it keeps drawing crowds. Reporter Gloria Hillard, filling in this week for our Wordmasters, has more:

GH: They litter almost every studio and agent's office in Hollywood鈥?issues of the instantly recognized Hollywood trade paper Variety, its bright green banner and bold headlines heralding⁴ opening box office receipts, movie deals, acquisitions, everything on the big and small screen to behind the scenes. In the competitive world of show business, Variety is almost required reading.

For the newcomer, the reading requires a certain knowledge of showbiz shorthand. Scanning the headlines at this Los Angeles newsstand, this one caught my eye: MOUSE HEADS TO COURT FOR CEO SEARCH. Now if you didn't know right away this was a story about the Walt Disney Company, don't feel bad.

TIM GRAY: "If you don't read Variety every day, it's like learning a foreign language."

As executive editor of Variety, Tim Gray is a walking dictionary of showbiz speak, or Variety slanguage.

TIM GRAY: "There is a certain amount of silly fun in slanguage because show business people take themselves so seriously."

So on the pages of Variety, it's not an award show, it's a kudocast. A director is a helmer. BevHills is short for Beverly Hills. H'w'd [pronounced H-wood], Hollywood. Girlfriend is just GF. The letters NSG stand for not so good, and so on. There are even words that have been developed to be H-wood politically sensitive. For instance, no one is ever fired in Hollywood, especially if you're a helmer's GF. That would be NSG!

So instead, as Tim Gray explains, one is simply ankled.

TIM GRAY: "Somebody ankles their job because the last thing you see when they walk out the door is their ankle. It's kind of neutral because, especially in Hollywood, you don't want to say someone is fired because they'll call and say 'No no I quit, they didn't fire me.' And so they [the former employers] will say 'He was fired, who was he kidding?' So that kind of thing we use every day. Personally, boffo is my favorite word."

GH: "Which means?"

TIM GRAY: "Terrific. Whammo is the absolute best it can be. The sixth 'Star Wars' movie is going to be whammo at the box office."

Somehow it's hard to imagine that, even in Hollywood, grown men and women might be using the word boffo in conversation. Still, says Mr. Gray:

TIM GRAY: "The Oxford⁵ English Dictionary has 20 words it attributes to Variety and that's kind of impressive. Words like striptease and payola and soap opera that Variety coined and they've become part of the daily language."

Some other words you may recognize are punch line ... and showbiz.

(RESTAURANT SOUNDS)

But does contributing to a couple of dozen words to the everyday language really make slanguage understandable? Well, maybe we should do a field test. A couple of Variety's casually⁶ tucked under my arm serve as my passport at an industry insider lunch spot. Michael Kassan is an executive in the entertainment industry. Still, this headline might stump⁷ him: KILLER⁸ TURNED FOR HUNT.

MICHAEL KASSAN: "Hmmm, Killer turned for Hunt. Killer Films is a production company and [actress] Helen Hunt is going to do a film for them."

OK, let's try one more: PILOTS READY FOR TAKE-OFF.

MICHAEL KASSAN: "It's a story about TV shows. And TV shows prepared for series are called pilots."

Clearly this crowd speaks the language. OK, heading east on Sunset, let's try the Variety headline test at the famed tourist spot Grauman's Chinese Theater. These three women are from Orlando Florida.

WOMEN: "Pilots ready for takeoff -- a movie? I have no idea."

OK, here's another: MOUSE MEN SET SAIL.

WOMEN: "Mouse men set sail. Let me see ... no, no, nope. [laughter]"

It was a story about two actors who signed on to a Disney film, probably a sea-going adventure. These tourists said they didn't think they'd subscribe⁹ to Variety any time soon.

But it's still possible to sound like an industry insider. For those who want to learn how to speak the language of showbiz, the Hollywood Dictionary, a glossary¹⁰ of some 200 terms, will be published this fall.

For Wordmaster, I'm Gloria Hillard in Hollywood.

MUSIC: "Variety Speak"/Animaniacs

 

1 vex   

vt.使烦恼，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Everything about her vexed him.有关她的一切都令他困惑。
• It vexed me to think of others gossiping behind my back.一想到别人在背后说我闲话，我就很恼火。

2 dubbed   

v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制

参考例句：

• Mathematics was once dubbed the handmaiden of the sciences. 数学曾一度被视为各门科学的基础。
• Is the movie dubbed or does it have subtitles? 这部电影是配音的还是打字幕的？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 mascot   

n.福神，吉祥的东西

参考例句：

• The football team's mascot is a goat.足球队的吉祥物是山羊。
• We had a panda as our mascot.我们把熊猫作为吉详物。

4 heralding   

v.预示( herald的现在分词 )；宣布（好或重要）

参考例句：

• It is the heralding of a new age of responsibilities. 那预示着一个充满责任的新时期的开始。 来自互联网
• Streaks of faint light were rising, heralding a new day. 几道淡淡的晨曦正在升起，预示新的一天的来临。 来自互联网

5 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

6 casually   

adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地

参考例句：

• She remarked casually that she was changing her job.她当时漫不经心地说要换工作。
• I casually mentioned that I might be interested in working abroad.我不经意地提到我可能会对出国工作感兴趣。

7 stump   

n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走

参考例句：

• He went on the stump in his home state.他到故乡所在的州去发表演说。
• He used the stump as a table.他把树桩用作桌子。

8 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

9 subscribe   

vi.(to)订阅，订购；同意；vt.捐助，赞助

参考例句：

• I heartily subscribe to that sentiment.我十分赞同那个观点。
• The magazine is trying to get more readers to subscribe.该杂志正大力发展新订户。

10 glossary   

n.注释词表；术语汇编

参考例句：

• The text is supplemented by an adequate glossary.正文附有一个详细的词汇表。
• For convenience,we have also provided a glossary in an appendix.为了方便，我们在附录中也提供了术语表。