Don't throw around these seemingly innocent words and phrases that have horrible origins. These familiar terms derive from stereotypes, slurs, and bigotry, so wipe them from your vocabulary.
别使用这些看似天真的单词和短语，因为它们的来源很不好。这些我们熟知的短语来源于成见、歧视和偏执，所以快把它们从你的词典里删掉吧。
Even the 80s John Hughes classic The Breakfast Club, uses the phrase "Basket Case" to describe Ally Sheedy's social outcast character. The term actually comes from WWI slang—and refers to soldiers who were so seriously injured you could fit them in a basket. So think twice before you toss this uncompassionate term around. Even The Breakfast Club teens knew it was mean.
甚至是80年代约翰•休斯执导的经典电影《早餐俱乐部》也使用了短语“Basket Case”（意为神经病、废人、四肢不全的人）来形容艾丽•西蒂饰演的受社会排斥的角色。这个短语实际来源于第一次世界大战时期的俚语——用来形容那些受伤严重到可以装进篮子里的士兵。所以，在提起这个冷漠的短语之前请再三考虑。即使是《早餐俱乐部》里的青少年都知道这个短语非常刻薄。
You might think this is a cute thing to say to someone you haven't seen for a while. It actually derives from the greeting of a Native American man talking to early settlers. Non-native English speakers, or anyone new to a language, will make these kinds of errors in syntax. "No can do" is a similar phrase that's said to derive from Chinese "broken" English. Both are unkind phrases to use.
你一定认为对好久不见的人说这个短语非常有爱。实际上，这个短语起源于美国土著人对早期殖民者的问候。非英语母语者或任何语言的初学者都会在句法上犯这种错误。类似的短语还有“No can do”（字面意思为“不能做”），起源于中式英语。这两个短语都很不友好。
You might say you got "gypped" if you get ripped off, but the term is said to refer to Gypsies. In that sense, the term derives from stereotyping this ethnic group as thieves and swindlers. Don't use it.
你可能会在被骗或被偷后使用“get gypped”这个表达，但据说这个词和吉普赛人有关。在这点上，这个短语起源于人们对吉普赛人这个族群的成见，认为他们都是小偷和骗子。所以，别使用这个短语。
Experts find the origins of the term "ghetto" to be particularly mysterious. Ghettos were the mandated locations for the ethnic segregation of Jews under the Nazi regime during WWII. In America, the term became associated with poor areas with non-white residents. Now, it's a bigoted term that gets tossed around to mean low-class.
专家发现“ghetto”这个词的来源十分神秘。二战纳粹统治时期，“Ghetto”（犹太社区）是犹太种族被隔离后的指定居所。在美国，这个词被逐渐用作非白人居民居住的贫民区。如今，人们用这个带有偏见的词形容下层社会。
There's a lot of controversy around the origins of this term. You know it to mean a generally accepted principle. It's said to derive from laws in England and America dating back to the 1600s. These laws are said to have stated that a man could beat his wife with any stick no wider than his thumb. Hence, the rule of thumb. Scholars have searched but they can't find any precise proof for this origin. That doesn't mean that domestic violence isn't a problem.
对于这个短语的来源有很多争议。你知道它指的是“被广泛接受的原则”。据说该短语来源于17世纪的英美法律。这些法律规定，男人可以用任何比他拇指细的棍子殴打自己的老婆。所以，叫做“拇指原则”。 学者对此做了一些研究，但是他们没有找到确凿证据证明该短语的来源。但是，这不代表这个短语的暴力内涵不是个问题。
You're probably happy if you get "grandfathered in" to a clause on your cell phone plan that has extra value. The grandfather clause usually means you get the benefits of an earlier "generation." However, the term originates with the practice of allowing voters in southern states easier voting conditions if they had a grandpa who had voted before 1867. Guess who didn't have those relatives? Black voters, because their grandpas were slaves. This term refers to an ugly and unfair history in voter disenfranchisement that continues today.
如果你被手机套餐条款“授予特权”，可以得到额外优惠，你一定会很开心。“祖父条款”通常指你从“上一代人”哪里得到的好处。然而，这个短语起源于南美的一个条例——如果某人的爷爷在1867年以前参加过选举投票，那么对他是否有权投票的要求就没那么苛刻。猜猜谁没有这样的亲属呢？黑人选民。因为他们的祖父辈是奴隶。这个短语反映了美国公民剥夺选举权历史的不公和丑陋，而这种不公和丑陋至今仍然存在。
This is the slang term used for a police van that picked up folks who got arrested. Paddy was a derogatory term for anyone Irish. And drawing on the stereotype that they Irish are drunkards and hooligans, "paddy wagon" referred to Irish guys getting into trouble with the law. Ethnic stereotypes, like all Irish are drunks, aren't cool.
这个俚语短语指的是警察运送犯人的囚车。对任何一个爱尔兰人来说“Paddy”这个词是一个贬义词。这个词带有成见，认为爱尔兰人都是酒鬼和流氓。而“paddy wagon”这个短语指的是那些陷入法律纠纷的爱尔兰人。像所有爱尔兰人都是酒鬼这样的种族成见一点也不酷。
If you say you were "sold down the river," you mean that someone betrayed you. That isn't a very enlightened way to express that sentiment because it derives from America's history of slavery. Slaves were sold "down river" as punishment where they would experience harsher conditions—and be separated from family and loved ones. Nothing compares to such dehumanizing anguish, so don't equate your suffering to that of slaves.
如果你用 “sold down the river”这个短语，说明你被某个人背叛了。这不是表达这种心情的明智之选，因为它起源于美国的奴隶历史。奴隶被卖到“河下游”是一种惩罚，意味着他们会有更苛刻的生存条件，还要和家人和心爱的人分开。没有什么比这种非人的待遇还要痛苦了，所以别将你的遭遇和奴隶的遭遇相提并论。
The word hysterical derives from the Greek word for uterus. It usually gets tossed around as a description for emotional women and feeds into the sexist stereotype that women are "naturally" crazy. Doctors had a bunch of weird ideas about the biology of women that they used to rationalize sexist beliefs. These ideas still have influence today. When it comes to gender, the usual advice doesn't apply.
“Hysterical”起源于希腊词语“uterus”。“Uterus”通常被用来描述情绪化的女性，从而形成一种性别偏见，认为女性是“天生的”疯子。医生们对于女性生物学有许多奇怪的观念，他们曾借助女性生物学使性别歧视合理化。这些观念至今仍有影响。当提到性别时，不建议使用这个词。
In the early-twentieth century, "moron" was the term given to folks with a learning disability. The term originates as a word meaning "stupid" in ancient Greek. Its history is cruel, so stay away from tossing this around.
在20世纪早期，“moron”（意为傻子）被用来形容有学习障碍的人。该词最早是一个古希腊词语，意思为“傻的”。它的来源很残忍，所以还是别用它了。
You may think "Eenie Meenie" is an innocent children's rhyme to help kids count off or to choose someone to be "it." You've probably even recited the little verse yourself numerous times. "Catch a tiger by the toe," seems harmless. Until you find out that "tiger" is a fairly recent replacement for the original term. Which was the N-word.
你可能会以为“Eenie Meenie”是一个帮助孩子报数和选人的天真童谣。你或许还唱过无数遍这个小歌谣。“抓住老虎的脚趾头”听起来好像无害。但是在你知道“老虎”其实是原版词语的替代词，你就不这么认为了。被替换的词语为N开头的词语（nigger，指黑鬼）。
Imbecile derives from the Latin term for weak. That is, it refers to just the type of people who need society's compassion and care. Instead, the term was chosen by psychologists for people with cognitive disabilities. Now, it's thrown around to mean stupid. It's a bullying term, and we need to work to end rampant bullying.
“Imbecile”（意为傻瓜）源于意思为“虚弱”的拉丁词语。换句话说，它指需要社会同情关心的一类人。心理学家曾用这个词来形容认知障碍的人。如今，人们用这个词来形容愚蠢的人。这是个恃强凌弱的词语，我们需要努力结束这种猖獗的欺凌。
