Play With Words

Toff 这个词，第一层的意思是“爱打扮、身着名贵人士”，但是在英国英语中，却是与社会阶层(social class)紧密联系的，指的是上流社会中身着名贵、态度倨傲的人士。而且在英国，“上流社会”也不是有钱就能进的，必须是有身份的名门贵族。这在社会阶层的分化(class division)仍是热门话题的今天，toff 就是一个用来攻击别人的贬义词。

Toff 一词最近多见于报端，就是因为在英格兰西北的 Crewe and Nintwich 选区补选中，工党用 toff 一词来攻击保守党候选人 Timpson，称其为 Tory toff，还雇佣演员，穿上燕尾服、手执文明棍、头戴高顶礼帽，表演什么是 toff。而工党自己的候选人 Tamsin Dunwoody 就叫“我们自己人”(One of us)。不过工党的这一招显然失灵，补选失败。

Toff 一词，最好的翻译，就是“公子哥儿”。

Times 报道的标题，就是 Divisions over ‘Tory toff’ insult undermine Labour in Crewe by-election

《卫报》驻北京记者 Tania Branigan 5 月 13 日从都江堰发回的报道，刊登在 14 日的头版。这是第一二段：

Tenderly, she eased the clean fleece over her little boy’s hand and up around his plump shoulder. The steady rain washing the town’s streets had chilled the usually warm Sichuan weather.

He didn’t look alarmed or frightened but dirt and blood were caked on his forehead. She touched his hair and then they pulled up the zipper on the bodybag and carried him away. Only her husband marked her howls.

Simon Hattenstone on Iván Campo:

The spaniard does not just look like a pub footballer, he looks like a pub footballer who has sunk 14 pints with William Hague on a Friday night, gone down the rankest curry house for chicken vindaloo and chips, missed the last bus home, slept on a park bench, not washed and turned up at the Reebok, 2.55pm on the Saturday, to play for Bolton Wanderers.

Somehow I can’t find this article the Guardian website (was published on 30 April 2008).

pub footballer: 相对于 professional footballer，有“乌合之众”之意。

14 pints with William Hague: 前保守党党魁 William Hague 有一次为显示自己并非脱离劳动大众，称自己年轻时打工运送啤酒到酒吧，按规矩每次酒吧都会请搬运工喝一杯(pint)啤酒，并称他最多一天可以送14个酒吧。于是并传成“年轻时每天喝14杯啤酒”(14 pint Hague)。

rank: adj. Strong and offensive in odor or flavor.

chicken vindaloo and chips: 去印度餐馆吃 chips 是改造的吃法。

Reebok: Bolton Wanderers 的主场。

2.55pm on the Saturday: 英超足球比赛的正常开赛时间是周六下午3点。

Miley Cyrus 的“露背照”风波，她为自己的辩护是觉得 Vanity Fair 的 Annie Leibovitz 把她拍得“好看自然” (pretty and natural)，并且“很有艺术感”(really artsy)。

Artsy 是 arty 的变种，而 arty 已经是很口语化的说法，可谓是 teen talk。《卫报》上 Germaine Greer 尖刻地说：

If by this she meant artistic, rather than artsy-fartsy, she was right on the money.

artistic 是褒意，artsy-fartsy 则完全是贬意了，比“附庸风雅”还不如。