第463期:tittle-tattle 八卦

生活中,尤其工作中,总有一种人热衷于无中生有说别人的闲话,捕风捉影地传八卦花边新闻。这种八卦三八新闻英语就叫 tittle-tattle.

Tittle和tattle这两个词本身都是串闲话的意思,它们的一个更普及的近义词是 gossip. Tittle-tattle既可以作名词,也可以作动词,跟gossip一样,两种词性写法都一样。后面都用介词about.

英语释义:

To tittle-tattle is to talk about other people’s lives that is usually unkind, disapproving, or not true.

Urban dictionary上对tittle-tattle的解释很经典,大家欣赏一下:

Another name for Gossip. Tittle tattle is used a lot by women, they hear something about someone and believe it to be the Gospel truth,
and when they tell a friend of this they add a little to it to add some
spice to the scandal that they’ve heard. So by the time it has has been
passed along a few people, it turns into the greatest
load of Bullshit that you’ve ever heard.


如果有人在你背后说你坏话,搬弄是非,向老板打小报告黑你,这个动作英语叫 tell tales. 上海话里有某人“讲故事”的说法,就是tell tales的意思。

*tell tales这种说法中的tale总是复数形式,大概意思是说打小报告的人不可能只说你一句坏话,而是很多吧。

If someone tells tales about you, they tell other people things about you which are untrue or which you wanted to be kept secret.

Tell tales的人英语可以称为 tattle tale,意思是爱打小报告的人。(One who reports the wrong-doings of others to an authority.)

每种文化中都看不起打小报告的人,英语中又把这种人叫作 rat. 把告密这种行为叫做 rat on. 例如 rat on one’s friend 出卖朋友。


感谢你的阅读,明天见。