English - The Real Deal

在网络流行语方面我一向后知后觉，两三个月前才第一次接触到Orz（这里似乎该加个“汗”）。前几天和朋友吃饭时有人问起Orz到底是什么意思，正好这个网站的留言里也第一次出现Orz，我就仔细挖了一下Orz的来源。找到一篇挺有意思的英文介绍，摘录如下（有较多语法和拼写错误，未修正）：

“Orz” is a popular symbol, a pictograph, a fun stuff, a strong meme, a fashion and even a subculture in Far East Asia since 2004. It’s originally from Japan. It illustrates a guy facing left and kneeling on the ground, the “o” means the head, the “r” means the hands and the body while the “z” means the legs. People use this pictograph to show they failed and they are despair or in a sad mood in the Internet. People often not read “orz” out, but spell it out in ordinary conversations.

There are many alternative forms of “orz” including “or2″, “on_”, “OTZ”, “OTL”, “STO”, “JTO” and so on. And there are more and more web sites in the name of “orz”. For instance, a online service to prove shorten urls is called ‘0rz.net‘, and there is a blog about “orz” in Japan: orz.jp.

In Taiwan, the “orz” subculture is combined with another “Nice Guys” subculture. “Nice guys” refers to the boys rejected or denied by the girls, because girls often deny the boys by saying politely: “You are a nice guy, you must can find another girl who loves you and she is better than me. I am so sorry”. Someday some boys were sharing their experience of being denied, they found that they have similar past and “nice guy” became a bad phrase then. Since being a “nice guy”, they felt strongly despair and “orz”.

不过这跟我的理解有些出入。我一直把Orz当“崇拜”来用的，相当于“给（你）磕头、我拜拜（你）”，不知道它有“沮丧、绝望”的意思。又搜索了一下，找到一篇比较全面的中文介绍。其中有这么一段：

Orz随着使用的广泛，其涵义逐渐增加，除了无可奈何或失意之外，开始引申为正面的对人「拜服」「钦佩」的意思。另外，也有较反面的「拜托！」「被你打败了！」「真受不了你！」这类意思的用法。

原来我跳过本义直接用引申义了，而且只用了引申义的一半。Orz还真是博大精深啊。Orz Orz Orz

相关链接：

All about Orz
ORZ是什么意思？

Bonus video: Stacie Orrico - I’m Not Missing You

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 3rd, 2006 at 8:40 pm and is filed under Culture, Interesting Find. 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.