介绍:
Heyang: Hello and welcome to Round Table’s Word of the Week. This week, John and myself Heyang are going to talk about euphemisms used for describing faaat people.
John: Or overweight perhaps. Fat can be insulting, that’s why we have euphemisms. A euphemism is a generally innocuous word or expression used in place of one that may be found offensive or suggest something unpleasant. For example, Heyang feels very uncomfortable saying the word fat or calling someone fat. So rather she might use a euphemism.
Heyang: 今天我们聊的是用委婉说法来讲一个人胖。
John: Alright, let’s look at some words and phrases. The first one is ‘queen size.’ The idea being I suppose you need larger pantyhose and larger underwear in queen size, because queens end up eating a lot and being bigger than most of other women.
Heyang: 王后的尺寸。这个渊源其实跟中国的皇室（例如唐朝）可能也有些异曲同工之妙。王室、皇后可能她吃的比较好，身材也就丰满一些。于是就有了这种说法。
John: And there’s the ‘women’s section.’ So for this is perhaps referring to a certain section within the women’s department of a department store. The thing is you have a ‘lady’s section’ and a ‘women’s section.’ What’s the difference between the two? Well, the ‘women’s section’ usually has larger size clothing.
Heyang: 如果是在女士部分血拼的话，你的尺寸可能小一些。如果在女人部分的话，在这家百货公司可能你的买的是大一点尺寸的衣服。
John: And there’s ‘husky.’ So referring to the Siberian Husky or a type of dog. Again I’m not really sure how this has come about or how it works. But just keep in mind that ‘husky’ is another euphemism of being large.
Heyang: Husky就是爱斯基摩长毛狗。是不是因为这种狗体积大，毛发也很旺盛，所以就用这个词儿来形容有点胖的人。
John: And there’s ‘above average.’ This is actually a true euphemism. Because you are not even necessarily referring to their weight or body size. All you are saying is they look above average or the size of their clothes is going to be above average.
Heyang: 高于平均值，这种说法也不一定是好的。这个真的是一个精准的委婉说法。指的可能是一个人的体型或穿衣尺寸高于平均值。那肯定是偏胖的啦。
John: It’s similar to ‘overweight.’ You are not calling someone fat, you are calling someone above the average weight. And then there is ‘curvy’ and ‘curvier.’ You could perhaps call someone voluptuous referring to the fact that they are above average.
Heyang : 说一个人有曲线美也可能意思是这个人偏胖。But you can still use it as its real meaning, right? As let’s say Beyoncé. She’s not fat, but she’s really curvy.
John: Well, she is above average. So let’s look at some more euphemisms here. So again, looking at clothes. There is ‘plus size’ kind of referring to bigger people.
Heyang: 加大码。。。
John: In Chinese, it’s not really a euphemism, is it? But let’s just look at some other euphemisms that we are not going to necessarily explain them. These here are true euphemisms, and then we can go on to some that are actually not so much euphemisms but actually are kind of insulting. And so you should be a little bit careful. So ‘plump,’ ‘big-boned,’ ‘fluffy,’ ‘husky’ which we’ve already talked about as well as ‘voluptuous’ can all be described as euphemisms for fat people.
Heyang: John刚才列举的几个单词是真正的委婉说法。讲出来的话对方还是心里比较好受的。 One question for you John. When you use ‘voluptuous’ to describe a man, isn’t that truly insulting?
John: That’s truly insulting. Describing a man as voluptuous is not a euphemism. That is not trying to hide your meaning behind nice-sounding words which is what a euphemism is supposed to do. Rather that’s more of a sarcastic insult.
Let’s take a look at some actually insulting words and phrases that you can use or perhaps avoid using when talking about overweight people. So ‘weight challenged,’ ‘Weight Watcher’s material.’ For those of you who don’t know what Weight Watchers, it’s a very common and popular program/business that people go into or people become members of Weight Watchers in order to lose weight. Again, keep on going very quickly ‘not model material,’ ‘would make a good before picture for a gym,’ ‘a member of a larger socio-demographic,’ and finally but not least ‘lean challenged.’
Heyang: These are some really insulting terms. John这回列举的都是刺进人的心窝的非常难听的关于胖的说法。例如‘适合进入减肥训练营的人’。你说说这拐着弯儿地骂人实在是太让人听着痛苦了。So that’s all we have this week’s Round Table’s Word of the Week. See you next week!
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