“隨便、還行”英語這么說

“晚上吃什么啊?”“隨便。”“我這個(gè)菜味道還不錯(cuò)吧?”“還行。”

這樣的對(duì)話內(nèi)容熟悉嗎?因?yàn)榇蠹衣?ldquo;隨便”這個(gè)回答太多，所以后來有了“沒有‘隨便’這道菜”一說。聽到“還行”就知道其實(shí)就是“不好”的意思。你知道嗎?英語里其實(shí)也有這樣類似的回答，而且更簡(jiǎn)潔呢，就叫meh(音同mei)，這個(gè)詞在2015年6月剛剛被收錄進(jìn)《牛津英語詞典》。

Anyone who regularly uses chatrooms or instant messaging will almost undoubtedly be familiar with responses consisting only of this little sequence of three letters--meh. For the uninitiated, meh is a new interjection peppering news items, messageboards, chatrooms and blogs across the English-speaking Internet, and it's an informal linguistic equivalent of a simple shrug of the shoulders.

定期光顧聊天室或使用即時(shí)信息的人肯定對(duì)meh這個(gè)回復(fù)很熟悉。對(duì)于不太了解形勢(shì)的人來說，meh是新近在英文網(wǎng)絡(luò)新聞、論壇、聊天室以及博客中躥紅的一個(gè)感嘆詞，傳達(dá)的意思跟“聳聳肩”的意思差不多。

No one is completely certain how the use of meh originated, but most sources quote a 2001 episode of The Simpsons as one of the earliest examples. Impossible to accurately define, meh is cropping up increasingly to mean something like a non-commital OK, whatever, if you want, I don't mind … Circumstances surrounding its utterance (and, if spoken, tone of voice) give it a more specific meaning, but in general terms, meh usually implies some kind of indifference to what has just been said.

關(guān)于meh這個(gè)用法的起源，沒有完全確定的說法，不過大部分引源都顯示2001年《辛普森一家》的劇集中最早使用了meh這個(gè)說法。雖然無法給出明確的定義，但meh這個(gè)詞在越來越多的場(chǎng)合表示心不在焉的“行”、“隨便”、“看你吧”、“我無所謂”等意思。說這個(gè)詞時(shí)的具體場(chǎng)景(以及說話時(shí)的語氣)可能會(huì)讓它具體的意思有所區(qū)別，但總的來說，meh通常表示對(duì)所聞之事漠然或不關(guān)心的態(tài)度。

For example:

'Want to go for a walk?' – 'Dunno … Meh.'

“想走走嗎?”——“不知道啊，隨便吧。”

'Do you like my new shirt?' – 'Meh.'

“我的新裙子怎么樣?”——“還行吧。”