英语中,“做坏事的人”或“犯法的人”有个常用的表达法
--- "wrong-doer"。这个词可以在英汉词典中找到。但是在同样的英汉词典中却没有"good-doer"这个表示“做好事的人”的英语词。这不知是不是"good-doer"不如“wrong-doer”常见的缘故。
但英语中却另有一个词 --- “do-gooder”。请看:
I wondered what
these two starry-eyed do-gooders could really accomplish.
---
Reader's Digest, May l974, p. 80
值得注意的是,“do-gooder”据WNWD乃是“an
earnest usu. impractical and often naive and ineffectual
humanitarian or reformer"(空想的社会改良家),而不是我们所说的“好人好事”的“好人”或“做好事的人”。如果我们望文生义地把汉语“做好事的人”,译成英语“do-gooder",那就会引起误解---误解我们对好人好事所持的肯定态度。
说了“do-gooder”和“good-doer”的区别之后,不免要联系到“good-looker"这个词。此词得从常用的“good-looking”说起
--- “good-looker”该是由“good-looking”逆生而来的吧。从词义来说,后者是“好看的”,前者当然该是“好看的人”了。请看:
“I can quite
understand that two attractive young ladies like your daughters
might find it dull here," said Cleveland. “Good
lookers, aren't they?" said Mr. Dinsmead with fatherly
pride.
---
Agatha Christie: The Hound of Death, Fonata/Collins, 1933/78, p.
178
|