那么英語中如何恰當而又有禮貌地表達 “胖”呢?下面是一些常見的委婉表達法。
1. gain weight: 增加體重。例如:
People who drink diet soft drinks don’t lose weight. They gain weight, a new study finds.
2. super size person: 超大之人。例如:
No more hamburgers, I don’t want to be a super size person.
3. heavyset: 體格魁偉的。例如:
He was tall and heavyset.
4. nutritionally endowed: 營養(yǎng)豐富的。例如:
Though garlic is a nutritionally endowed food, it is only consumed in small amounts.
5. gravitationally challenged: 受地球引力挑戰(zhàn)的。例如:
That girl is gravitationally challenged.
6. well-built: 體格健美的,體型勻稱的。例如:
That girl is well-built.
7. stout 結實的,壯實的。例如:
She is getting too stout for her dresses.
8. big-boned: 骨骼粗大的。例如:
I’m not fat, just big-boned.
9. overweight: 超重的。例如:
Overweight in a child should not be neglected.
10. chubby: 胖乎乎的(多指小孩和女子)。 例如:
The baby has a chubby face.
11. buxom: 體態(tài)豐滿的。例如:
A generation ago, fat babies were considered healthy and buxom actresses were popular, but society has come to worship thinness.
同樣,“瘦”不能說skinny,它是“皮包骨”的意思。要形容一個人苗條應該用slender,slim,或delicate。“減肥”則可以說lose pounds或lose weight。
總之,“胖”和“瘦”是英美人敏感的話題, fat和skinny的使用要十分小心,注意回避。但是有一個例外就是phat(妙,好,酷),是fat 的異體詞,在口語中常常用于贊美美妙的東西,相當于cool。例如:
The car is really a phat.