VOA慢速英语:Words and Their Stories: Military Expressions

This is Phil Murray with WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, a program in Special English on the voice of America.  We tell about some common expressions in American English.
这里是美国之音慢速英语词汇掌故节目。我们讲解一些在美国英语中常用的表达。

A leatherneck or a grunt do not sound like nice names to call someone. Yet men and women who serve in the United States armed forces are proud of those names.  And if you think they sound strange, consider doughboy and GI Joe.
海军陆战队员（leatherneck）和美国步兵（grunt）都不是对他人的合适称呼。但是在美国武装部队服役的人却为这些称呼而感到骄傲。如果你觉得这些称呼听起来都很奇怪，那再想想美国步兵（doughboy)和美国军队中的士兵（GI Joe）吧。

After the American Civil War in the eighteen sixties, a writer in a publication called Beadle’s Monthly used the word doughboy to describe Civil War soldiers. But word expert Charles Funk says that early writer could not explain where the name started.
在19世纪60年代美国内战后，一位作者在《比德尔月刊》的一期刊物中，用"doughboy"一词来描述内战的士兵们。不过词汇专家查尔斯•芬克称，那位早期的作者也无法解释这个名字从何而来。

About twenty years later, someone did explain. She was the wife of the famous American general George Custer.
大约二十年后，有人可以解释了。她就是美国著名的将军乔治•库斯特的妻子。

Elizabeth Custer wrote that a doughboy was a sweet food served to Navy men on ships. She also said the name was given to the large buttons on the clothes of soldiers. Elizabeth Custer believed the name changed over time to mean the soldiers themselves.
伊莉莎白•库斯特写到："doughboy"曾经是为船上的水手们制作的一种甜点，她还说，"doughboy"也指士兵们衣服上的大纽扣。她认为，后来随着时间的推移，这个词的词义也有所改变，用来指的是士兵们。

Now, we probably most often think of doughboys as the soldiers who fought for the Allies in World War One.
现在我们通常用"doughboy"来指那些曾在第一次世界大战中为盟军效力的士兵们。

By World War Two, soldiers were called other names. The one most often heard was GI, or GI Joe.  Most people say the letters GI were a short way to say general issue or government issue. The name came to mean several things. It could mean the soldier himself. It could mean things given to soldiers when they joined the military such as weapons, equipment or clothes. And, for some reason, it could mean to organize, or clean.
二战期间，战士们并非被称为“soldiers”，最普遍的叫法是GI或GI Joe。大多人认为GI是民用物资或军用物资的简称。后来它有了多种意义。它可以表示士兵，也可以表示士兵入伍时领到的东西，如武器、装备或军服。并且不知何故，它还表示“军纪严格”或“打扫军营以备检阅”。

Soldiers often say, “We GI’d the place.” And when an area looks good, soldiers may say the area is “GI.” Strangely, though, GI can also mean poor work, a job badly done.
士兵们经常说，“我们GI了这个地方。”有时一个地方无特殊情况，他们会说这里是“GI”。然而，很奇怪的是，GI也意味着办砸了一件事。

Some students of military words have another explanation of GI. They say that instead of government issue or general issue, GI came from the words galvanized iron. The American soldier was said to be like galvanized iron, a material produced for special strength. The Dictionary of Soldier Talk says GI was used for the words galvanized iron in a publication about the vehicles of the early twentieth century.
一些军事词汇的学生对GI有另一种解释。他们说，GI来自词汇galvanized iron，而不是government issue 或者general issue。美国士兵被说成像一种又特殊力量的产品，镀锌铁。The Dictionary of Soldier Talk一书中谈到，在二十世纪早期关于车的出版物中，GI指代的是galvanized iron。

Today, a doughboy or GI may be called a grunt. Nobody is sure of the exact beginning of the word. But, the best idea probably is that the name comes from the sound that troops make when ordered to march long distances carrying heavy equipment.
如今，美国步兵或是GI会被称为“grunt（呼噜声）”。没人了解这一说法究竟从何而来。而最让人信服的一个解释是，这源自军队受命拖着沉重的装备长途步行时发出的轰轰声。

A member of the United States Marines also has a strange name -- leatherneck.  It is thought to have started in the eighteen hundreds. Some say the name comes from the thick collars of leather early Marines wore around their necks to protect them from cuts during battles. Others say the sun burned the Marines’ necks until their skin looked like leather.
美国海军成员也有个奇怪的名字——“皮革脖子”。据说从19世纪就开始这种叫法了。有人认为这么叫是因为，早期海军为了在战斗中免受刀伤而在脖子上围上厚厚的皮领子。而有人认为是太阳灼伤了海军的脖子，久而久之，皮肤变成了皮革色。