又中又英 | A bunch of baloney | 褚簡寧
How would you respond if a person tells you something that you know is nonsense, totally untrue, or absurd? There are many ways in the English language to respond, either politely or in a rude way. A polite way is to tell that person what he said was poppycock or hogwash. Both words mean nonsense. Or you can respond by saying that's a “bunch of baloney". This American slang expression means nonsense or lies. The word "baloney" also means a type of cold meat you can put in a sandwich.
If you want to be less polite, you can tell that person what he said was a load of bull. This expression is used to describe something that is untrue, stupid, or nonsensical. If you want to be rude, you can say that's a “load of crap" or "bullshit". The words "crap" and "shit" both mean faeces (feces in American English). I recently heard an American political commentator use the expression "crock of shit". This is a very rude expression that also means nonsense, lies, or an exaggeration. I don’t use this expression and prefer to simply use "bull" instead.
A crock is a clay or ceramic pot for storing or preserving food. A large crock was also sometimes used as a toilet during the days before plumbing or flushing toilets. Many people frequently use words such as bullshit nowadays. They no longer consider such words rude. The Internet and social media have normalized these rude words to such an extent that many people will continue using them.
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如果有人告訴你一件事，你卻知道那是胡說、完全不真確或荒唐的，你會怎樣回應？在英語裏，有許多方法可以回應，不論是有禮或無禮的方式。有禮的方式是告訴那人他所說的是 poppycock或hogwash，兩個字都解作胡說八道、廢話。又或者你可以回應，那是a bunch of baloney。這是一個美式俚語，意指一派胡言或鬼話連篇。Baloney也可以指你放在三文治裏的波隆那香腸，是凍肉的一種。
如果你不想那麼有禮，你可以跟那人說他所說的是 a load of bull，這個習語是用來形容某事是不真確的、愚蠢又或荒謬的。若你想非常無禮，你可以說那真是a load of crap或bullshit。Crap和shit兩個字都指糞便。我最近就聽到一個美國政治評論員，用上習語crock of shit，這是個非常粗鄙無禮的說法，也是解作狗屁、謊話、又或誇大其詞。我不會用這個習語，情願簡單用bull就好了。
A crock是用來儲存食物的瓦罐或陶器。在還沒有管道系統與抽水馬桶之前，一個大的crock有時也會用來做馬桶。現在有許多人頻繁用bullshit這些字，已不再視這些字為粗鄙無禮的。網絡和社交媒體已將這些粗鄙的字常態化，以至有許多人都會繼續使用這一類的字詞。
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Michael Chugani褚簡寧
中譯：七刻
