“晚上吃什么啊?”“随便。”“我这个菜味道还不错吧?”“还行。”
这样的对话内容熟悉吗?因为大家听“随便”这个回答太多,所以后来有了“没有‘随便’这道菜”一说。听到“还行”就知道其实就是“不好”的意思。你知道吗?英语里其实也有这样类似的回答,而且更简洁呢,就叫meh(音同mei)。
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.
定期光顾聊天室或使用即时信息的人肯定对meh这个回复很熟悉。对于不太了解形势的人来说,meh是新近在英文网络新闻、论坛、聊天室以及博客中蹿红的一个感叹词,传达的意思跟“耸耸肩”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.
关于meh这个用法的起源,没有完全确定的说法,不过大部分引源都显示2001年《辛普森一家》的剧集中最早使用了meh这个说法。虽然无法给出明确的定义,但meh这个词在越来越多的场合表示心不在焉的“行”、“随便”、“看你吧”、“我无所谓”等意思。说这个词时的具体场景(以及说话时的语气)可能会让它具体的意思有所区别,但总的来说,meh通常表示对所闻之事漠然或不关心的态度。
For example:
'Want to go for a walk?' – 'Dunno … Meh.'
“想走走吗?”——“不知道啊,随便吧。”
'Do you like my new shirt?' – 'Meh.'
“我的新裙子怎么样?”——“还行吧。”