Name: 是你聽錯還是我說錯？其實這些已是約定俗成的「誤聽詞」(Have you been getting a phrase wrong all your life? | BBC Ideas)
Uploaded: 2020-05-22T21:01:30.000Z
Duration: 4 min 12 s

You know that mortifying moment when you use a common phrase in front of everyone, only to find out you've been saying it wrong for years?

有沒有經歷過一種令人尷尬的情況，就是當你在眾人面前講出一個常用的詞彙時，沒想到卻發現原來一直以來你都是講錯的嗎？

Well, the good news is you can stop that shame spiral in its tracks, because according to the nice folks at the Oxford English Dictionary, we've all done it.

好處的是你不用再為了這丟臉的事而煩惱，因為根據《牛津英語詞典》的各方編輯表示，大家都曾發生過。

Mishearing popular idioms, metaphors and sayings is much more common than you'd think and actually if enough people make the same mistake it can come to take root in our collective consciousness.

誤聽一些常見用語、暗喻和諺語，其實比你想像中還常見，而當一定的人數犯了同樣的錯誤時，就會紮根在我們的潛意識中。

Sometimes even replacing the original phrasing entirely.

有的甚至還會整個取代原本的說法。

For example, if someone were wildly mistaken, would you say they had another thing coming or another think coming?

比方說如果有人大大誤會了你的話，你會說他們是 another thing coming 還是 another think coming？

Believe it or not, according to Oxford's language monitoring databases the original phrase was another think coming, which to lots of you probably sounds all kinds of wrong.

不管你們相信與否，事實是根據牛津大學的語言監控數據庫，原始的說法是 another think coming (還得再三思)，大部分的你們的發音其實是錯誤的。

If someone strips down to their birthday suit, would you say they were butt naked or buck naked?

有人脫光光，你會說他是 butt naked 還是 buck naked？

While buck naked is the earlier form, nobody would bat an eyelid—or, to misuse a common phrase, an eyelash—if you were to say 'butt naked'.

最早的用法是 buck naked，不過即使你說 butt naked 大家亦不為所動 (bat an eyelid) 或是大家常說錯的 bat an eyelash。

These are the sort of changes that keep lexicographers busy updating their dictionaries so that they reflect how language is really being used by people, rather than instruct on how language should be used.

因為這樣的變化使詞典編輯忙於更新，這反映了大家怎麼使用語言，而不是被指導該如何使用。

So tell that to the next pedant who tries to correct you.

你可以準備告訴下一個想要糾正你的書呆子了！

In fact, many common turns of phrase have had fascinating journeys evolving into the popular sayings we all know and love today.

其實有很許多常見的措辭都經歷過一段有趣的演變過程，才變成我們現在習慣及喜歡使用的用語。

To curry favor, meaning to ingratiate yourself with someone, has nothing to do with buttering them up by buying them a vindaloo.

to curry favor (阿諛奉承) 的意思是討好別人，與為了討好他們而給他們買什麼印度香料是沒有任何關係。

Its original form was actually to curry Favel, which will make absolutely no sense to you unless you've brushed up on your medieval French literature.

原本其實應該是 to curry Favel，你可能會覺得完全不合理，那你該回去複習一下中世紀的法文文學。

Favel, or Fauvel, was the name of a horse in an early 14th Century poem who was renowned for his cunning and duplicity.

Favel 或 Fauvel 是出自十四世紀初期的一首詩作中的一匹馬的名字，牠出了名地詭計多端。

To curry Favel meant to groom him with a special comb, still called a currycomb today.

to curry Favel 意思是用特製的梳子替牠梳洗，而這仍然被稱為 currycomb (馬櫛)。

Favel was commonly misheard as favour and the rest, as they say, is history.

Favel 常被誤聽為 favour，而其他的就如他們所說的，已成為過去。

Basically the term "to curry favour" has lived such a rich life it would probably have a much better Tinder bio than you.

基本上 to curry favor 的演變過程可說是豐富多彩，也許比你在 Tinder 上的自介還落落長。

Social media in general has proved the perfect place to mercilessly take the mickey out of some of the more amusing mishearings.

社群媒體正是一個讓大家能恥笑那些引人發笑的誤聽詞的最佳平台。

Linguist Geoffrey Pullum coined the term eggcorn to describe these idiosyncratic substitutions after a woman famously said "eggcorn" when she meant "acorn."

語言學家 Geoffrey Pullum 創造了 eggcorn (誤聽詞) 這個說法，是源自曾經因把 acorn (橡實) 誤說成 eggcorn 而著稱的女士，後來用作形容這些獨特的替代法。

This name stuck, and has since spawned many a listicle of people's favourite examples, from the fairly logical damp squid for damp squib - squib being now a little-known word for a firework - to the cringeworthy all intensive purposes for all intents and purposes.

這個詞一直困擾著大家，從此亦產生了許多讓大家喜歡的例子，從看似合乎邏輯的 damp squib 變成 damp squid，而 squib 是鮮為人知指鞭炮的意思，

While eggcorns can be great fun, nothing brings people together like a misheard line or lyric.

雖然誤聽詞有趣，但沒有什麼能像聽錯詩詞或歌詞般更令人有共鳴。

Since the 1950s these have been known as mondegreens after American writer Sylvia Wright described mishearing a line from a poem "Laid him on the green" as "Lady Mondegreen."

mondegreens (空耳) 自 1950 年代興起，因美國作家 Sylvia Wright 將詩中一句 "Laid him on the green" 讀成 "Lady Mondegreen"。

Even Taylor Swift isn't immune to a mondegreen, with listeners widely hearing, "Long list of ex-lovers" in "Blank Space" as, "Lonely Starbucks lovers."

甚至連 Taylor Swift 亦不能倖免於這個問題，各大聽眾都把 Blank Space 中一句歌詞 "Long list of ex-lovers" (落落長的前男友名單) 聽成 "Lonely Starbucks lovers" (孤獨的星巴克愛好者)。

Another lol-worthy linguistic muddle up is the malaphor—a blend of malapropism the mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one, and metaphor.

另外一個很常鬧出語言學的的笑話就是 malaphor (誤用語詞作比喻) ，是由 malapropism (麥拉普現象) 指錯誤使用單詞以代替一個聽起來相似的單詞以及 metaphor (隱喻) 兩詞合成的字。

誤用語詞作比喻是指把習語搞混。

For example, "it's not rocket surgery" or "it'll be a walk in the cake."

比如說："It's not rocket surgery" (艱難的事) 或是 "It'll be a walk in the cake" (易如反掌)。

So next time you're at a party and you say "we'll burn that bridge when we get to it," "the cows came home to roost," or "every cloud has a silver spoon in its mouth," remember, you're not making a mistake, you're contributing to the evolution of the English language.

下次你參加派對的時候，你要說 "We'll burn that bridge when we get to it" 、"The cows came home to roost" 或是 "Every cloud has a silver spoon in its mouth" 的話，要記得你並沒有說錯，你是正為英語發展作出貢獻。

You're basically Shakespeare, and one of these days your mistake might just end up in the English dictionary.

你有可能是下一個莎士比亞，而你今日所犯的錯，最終有可能會出現在英語詞典裡。

What's your most embarrassing malaphor or eggcorn?

你曾經說過讓你最尷尬的誤用比喻詞或誤聽詞是什麼？