VOA慢速英語(yǔ): 火雞：錯(cuò)誤的定義

火雞：錯(cuò)誤的定義

And now another edition of Words and Their Stories, a VOA Learning English program about American expressions.

這里是詞語(yǔ)掌故的另一個(gè)節(jié)目，美國(guó)之音英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)的美語(yǔ)表達(dá)。

Thanksgiving is one of the biggest American holidays. And Thanksgiving dinner is the center of the holiday.

感恩節(jié)是美國(guó)一個(gè)盛大的節(jié)日，感恩節(jié)大餐是這個(gè)節(jié)日的重中之重。

And at the center of Thanksgiving dinner is the turkey.

感恩節(jié)大餐的關(guān)鍵是火雞。

Our listeners may be wondering why the word “turkey” describes both a country and a bird that Americans eat for Thanksgiving dinner.

我們的聽眾也許好奇為什么“turkey”既是土耳其——一個(gè)國(guó)家名字，又是一種鳥類——美國(guó)人感恩節(jié)大餐的食物。

Many think the bird comes from the nation of Turkey. But turkey is not from Turkey.

許多人認(rèn)為這種鳥來(lái)自土耳其，但是火雞不是來(lái)自土耳其。

In fact, the fact that the turkey bird is called by that name is one big mistake. We could say it is a case of mistaken identity.

實(shí)際上，火雞這個(gè)名字是個(gè)錯(cuò)誤的叫法。我們可以說(shuō)這是個(gè)錯(cuò)誤的定義。

Since Americans are celebrating Thanksgiving, it is time to set the record straight.

因?yàn)槊绹?guó)人慶祝感恩節(jié)，所以是時(shí)候可以解釋一下錯(cuò)誤的來(lái)源了。

First of all, “Turkey” has meant the “land of the Turks” since ancient times. The word turkey, referring to the bird, first appears in the English language around 1540. And the misunderstanding over the word turkey happened because of birds that look similar.

首先，在古代，“Turkey”是“土耳其人的土地。”單詞“火雞”是一種鳥，第一次出現(xiàn)在英語(yǔ)中是在1540年，對(duì)單詞turkey的誤解是因?yàn)檫@類鳥的稱呼跟另一種鳥相似。

This is the case of mistaken identity that we spoke of before.

這就是先前我們說(shuō)的錯(cuò)誤的定義。

First, there is an African bird called the guinea fowl. It has dark feathers with white spots and a patch of brown on the back of its neck. Portuguese traders brought the guinea fowl to Europe through North Africa.

首先，非洲有一種叫珍珠雞的鳥，這種鳥長(zhǎng)著黑色的羽毛，身上有白色斑點(diǎn)，脖子后有一塊棕色毛。葡萄牙的商人把這種珍珠雞從北非帶到歐洲。

This foreign bird came to Europe through Turkish lands. So, the English thought of the bird as a “Turkish chicken.”

這種外國(guó)鳥通過(guò)土耳其來(lái)到歐洲，因此，英國(guó)人認(rèn)為這種鳥是“土耳其雞”。

They mistakenly called the male bird the “turkey cock.” They called the female bird the “turkey hen.” It became popular to eat the bird for Christmas dinner.

他們錯(cuò)誤地稱雄性鳥叫“火公雞”，稱雌性鳥是“火母雞”。后來(lái)日漸流行成為圣誕一道菜。

When the Europeans moved to North America, they saw a bird that looked like the guinea fowl. Orin Hargraves is a lexicographer, someone who writes dictionaries. Mr. Hargraves explains what happened:

當(dāng)歐洲人搬遷到北美的時(shí)候，他們看到一種跟珍珠雞相似的鳥，歐琳·哈格瑞福斯是個(gè)詞典編纂人，他解釋了一下當(dāng)初的情況：

“Some Europeans saw an American turkey, thought that it was the guine a fowl, which at that time was called the “turkey cock” and so gave it the same name."

“一些歐洲人看到美國(guó)的火雞，認(rèn)為那就是珍珠雞，他們那時(shí)候稱之為‘火公雞’所以也就稱這種雞叫‘火雞’了。”

And so now we call this North American bird turkey even though it has no connection at all with the country Turkey … or even with Europe, for that matter.

盡管與土耳其國(guó)家或者歐洲沒(méi)有什么關(guān)系，但是現(xiàn)在我們稱這種北美的鳥叫火雞。

Now we call that bird turkey because somebody misnamed it. They thought it looked like this bird of African origin -- a bird that came at first from Africa.

現(xiàn)在我們稱呼這種鳥叫火雞因?yàn)橛腥水?dāng)初錯(cuò)誤的命名。他們認(rèn)為火雞跟來(lái)源于非洲的雞相像——首先被人所知是因?yàn)閬?lái)自非洲的這種鳥。

And there is another piece to the puzzle. The case of mistaken identity crosses land and language borders.

還有一個(gè)令人不解的地方，而這個(gè)錯(cuò)誤的稱謂跨越國(guó)界，傳到不同國(guó)家。

The Turkish, for their part, call the North American bird “hindi,” the Turkish name for India. The reference to India probably comes from the old, wrong idea that the New World was in Eastern Asia.

而土耳其人他們稱北美的這種鳥叫“hindi”這個(gè)詞語(yǔ)來(lái)自印度。這個(gè)來(lái)自印度引用源于東亞新世界的古老的、錯(cuò)誤的認(rèn)識(shí)。

Sometimes, that is how language changes over time – by mistakes.

有時(shí)侯，語(yǔ)言就是這樣隨著時(shí)間被錯(cuò)誤的流傳。

Another interesting fact about the turkey is that it almost became the national bird of the United States. Some people thought it should be the symbol of the U.S.

另一個(gè)有意思的情況是火雞幾乎成為美國(guó)的國(guó)鳥了，一些人認(rèn)為火雞應(yīng)該成為美國(guó)的象征。

But today, of course, you will see the bald eagle on the Presidential Seal of the United States. Founding father Benjamin Franklin did not think the eagle was a good symbol for the new country. He thought the eagle was “lazy” and “of bad moral character” because it stole food from other birds. He thought that the turkey was a “more respectable bird” and a “true original native of America.”

但是今天，你可以看到美國(guó)總統(tǒng)的禿頭鷹印章。富蘭克林并沒(méi)有想到禿頭鷹成為新國(guó)家的象征。他認(rèn)為鷹“懶散”而且“品德不良”，因?yàn)辁棌膭e的鳥類那盜取食物。他認(rèn)為火雞是個(gè)“人們更容易接受的鳥”而且“是美國(guó)本土真正的起源”。

And that’s it for this episode of Words and Their Stories. Join us again next week, when we explore the story behind American English.

這是詞語(yǔ)掌故的一些片段，下周繼續(xù)加入我們，我們會(huì)探索美語(yǔ)背后火雞的故事。