English - The Real Deal

今天晚上看了电视上直播的年度Miss America选美比赛。这类比赛的选美部分向来比较无聊，我喜欢的是才艺表演和综合问答部分。这两个环节都是到了接近尾声的时候，51个选手（每人代表美国的一个州）只剩最后五名finalists的时候进行的。

今天的综合问答部分有一题是“The word ‘bling-bling’ has been included in the latest edition of the Oxford Dictionary. It is used by rappers to describe a) money, b) jewelry, or c) cell phones?”

五个finalists里只有两个答对，一个是Miss Florida，另一个是Miss Maryland。这倒并不是非常出乎我意料之外，因为只有她们两个是黑人，其他三个都是白人。Bling-bling跟bootylicious一样，是黑人原创的单词，而且在没流行起来之前几乎都是说唱歌手使用的。

简单地说，bling-bling就是金光闪闪的珠宝首饰。详细地说，摘录相关介绍如下：

What started out as hip-hop jargon has turned into slang. And it’s not just for teenagers. CNN Headline News can’t get enough of “bling-bling.” Listen carefully and you’ll hear it on ESPN commercials. Newsweek used it in its May 12 edition in an article on, of all things, Costco. Newsweek’s exact phrase was “Ring up the bling.” At Costco.

All of which has gotten the very proper people at the very proper Oxford English Dictionary interested in “bling-bling.” And not just as a noun. They’re interested in it as a verb and adjective, too!

What is “bling-bling”?

The Record, a newspaper serving Bergen County, N.J., explains it for the unhip: Coined in 1999 in a song titled “Bling-Bling” by a New Orleans rapper named B.G., it refers to big showy jewelry. It “sets off alarms at airports and goes bling when it collides with other bling,” says The Record.

You know a word is no longer cool and cutting edge and oh-so-MTV when it lands in the dictionary. You know it’s crossed over when your mom starts using it in everyday conversation.

And what does Cash Money artist B.G. think about the word he coined way back when? He told MTV News, “‘Bling-bling’ will never be forgotten. So it’s like I will never be forgotten. I just wish that I’d trademarked it, so I’d never have to work again.”

He’s right. It won’t be forgotten. Once a word goes into the Oxford English Dictionary, it never comes out. Ever. “Bling-bling” will join a host of other hip-hop words: “jiggy,” “bootylicious,” “breakbeat,” “dope,” and “phat.”

所以，选美比赛那题的答案是b。我当时心里不要太得意哦，因为我至少三年前就知道这个词了，而且我不是黑人。而到了今天，Miss America最后五个finalists里除了黑人以外没人答对这题。我牛吧？ （鸡蛋就免了，鲜花和鼓掌随时欢迎。）

如果大家好奇我是从哪首歌里学到bling-bling的，答案是Pink的Most Girls。巧的是，她是白人，但她的歌路非常黑人化，尤其是第一张专辑。大家从Most Girls里就可以明显看出。Bling-bling，ching-ching，fly，shorty，G，gots，清一色的黑人词汇。

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 20th, 2003 at 11:30 pm and is filed under Culture, Slang, Ebonics, Language-related News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.