时髦英语口语词汇讲解第36期:Pre-owned

Elsewhere in this series we considered euphemisms and how sometimes people use words to soften the blow of something bad, or to make something sound better than it actually is.
在这个系列节目的某一期节目中，我们学过了‘委婉语’，也就是有时候人们会使用一些更柔和的词来缓解不好的遭遇所带了的打击或者使本来不好的事情听起来没那么糟糕。

And this is certainly the case with 'pre-owned'.
而pre-owned就属于这类词。

Do you buy everything new, or do you sometimes shop in second-hand shops, or one of the charity shops which are in every UK high street?
大家是不是什么东西都会买新的呢？还是偶尔会去二手店或者英国满大街的某一家慈善二手店里逛一逛？

If you really want to save money you might go ' dumpster diving' - fishing around in containers in streets for handy pieces of furniture or similar which have been left out by their previous owners to be taken away by the local council.
如果真的想省点钱，你可能会去‘翻垃圾’——在街上的箱子里找一些有用的家具或者类似的被先前主人丢在这里等待当地政府来收走的东西。

Or perhaps you buy things on an online auction site such as eBay?
或者大家会在像是eBay这样的在线拍卖网站上买东西。

In the week following Christmas day in 2007, over one million unwanted Christmas presents were put up for sale on eBay and all of these things had already had at least one owner.
2007年的圣诞节一周后，有超过一百万份圣诞礼物被放在eBay上降价出售，这些东西至少被一个人拥有过。

Some years ago, you would have thought of these items as 'second hand', but these days you're more likely to consider them 'pre-owned'.
若干年前，大家可能会觉得这些东西是二手货second hand，但是眼下大家会将之称作‘pre-owned——先前被拥有过’（也是‘二手货’的意思）。

It has a much nicer sound to it, doesn't it?
但是，好听了很多不是吗？

Nobody wants to have a 'second' anything, but 'pre-owned' has a warm feeling to it, almost like you're looking after it for someone else.
没人想要什么‘二手’的东西，但是pre-owned却会有种温暖的感觉，就像你是在为被人照顾什么东西一样。

'Pre-owned' appears to have originated with the automobile industry in the sixties, where dealers realised that people were more likely to buy a car marked like this, than one marked as 'second hand'.
Pre-owned看起来像是来源于60年代的汽车行业，当时的汽车商意识到人们更有可能购买标有Pre-owned的车，而不是购买标有second hand的车。

It just sounds better.
只是因为听起来更顺耳。

And you can take this even further, make the process even more acceptable with the ultra-modern version - 'pre-loved'!
大家还可以更进一步使用超现代的词pre-loved（也是二手的意思）使事情变得让人更容易接受一些。

So, next time someone looks down their nose at your not-so-new car, just tell them it was pre-loved - that'll confuse them!
下次如果某人用看不起的眼神看你的旧车时，你不妨告诉他们你的车是‘pre-loved’的，让他们丈二和尚摸不着头脑去！