时髦英语口语词汇讲解第6期:Bling Bling

Bling, bling - it arrived in English in the late 1990s, used to describe diamonds and jewellery and all kinds of showy clothing, accoutrements...
Bling(锦衣珠宝） bling，出现在英语词汇中是在上个世纪90年代，被用来形容钻石、珠宝以及各种各样的艳丽耀眼的衣服和服装。

Well, it became nationally known in the USA when the artist Baby Gangster - Cash Money artist - made a hit hip-hop song called 'Bling Bling'.
嗯，当艺术家Baby Ganster——Cash Money（Cash Money Records是美国南部地区一个专营说唱的公司）旗下的艺术家，出了一首走红的名为《Bling Bling》的说唱歌曲之后，Bling bling就在美国全上下传开了。

And it soon arrived in Britain, where it was more usually used without the reduplication, you know, 'bling', by itself.
很快，它就被传到了英国；而在这里，人们一般更倾向于不重复使用，就是只使用一个bling。

It was in dictionaries by 2002.
在2002年的时候，bling bling被收录进了字典。

Well, the sound-symbolic character of the word - glistening light reflected by metal - it caught popular attention.
这个单词(bling bling)的响声特征——金属反射出的闪烁的白光，引起了大众的注意。

The Times ran an article on it.
《泰晤士报》还为此写了一篇关于它的文章。

It was the title of a novel by Erica Kennedy, and its sense began to broaden as people began to use the word in new ways.
Erica Kennedy写的一本小说以它为名，而且随着人们对它新的使用方法的出现，它的意思也变得越来越广。

There's a website, 'Think Bling!' defining it as 'anything shiny and worth a good amount of money'.
有个网站叫做Think Bling，将bling定义为‘任何闪亮并且值很多钱的东西’。

Cars can now be bling.
汽车现在也可以称之为bling（奢华品）。

And even that definition is passe - a rich meal can be bling.
但是就连这个定义也过时了，因为一餐丰富的饭才也可以称之为Bling。

'Bling Breakfast' was the headline of a newspaper article in New York a couple of years ago.
几年前，纽约的一家报纸上有个头条就名为‘Bling Breakfast’（奢华早餐）。

But the word's takeover by the middle-classes has made it worthless to the rapping community.
但是中产阶级对这个单词的滥用使得它在说唱界变得毫无价值。

My rapping contacts tell me they'd never use it now, except as a joke!
我的说唱界朋友告诉我他们现在根本不用这个词了，除非是在开玩笑的时候。