时髦英语口语词汇讲解第46期:Wanna be

wanna be

崇拜模仿者

A very unusual feature of some languages and of English in particular, is that you can have phrases that can be used as words: a phrase used as a word!
某些语言有一种特征，特别是英语： 这种特征就是——我们可以把短语当作单词来用！

'Wannabe' is a good case in point. “wannabe” . It's of course a colloquial version of "want to be" .
就是一个很好的例子。 很明显它是 “want to be ”的口语表达形式。

Wannabe: w - a - double n - a - b - e - sometimes with two e's at the end.
拼写为“w-a-n-n-a-b-e”。有时候，又会写成“wannabee”

If I say "he's a wannabe", what I mean is he's an admirer or a fan; somebody who wants to emulate a celebrity by copying that celebrity's dress or behavior or something like this.
如果我称某个人为“wannabe”，也就是说，他是谁谁谁的崇拜者。 他会模仿某个名人的穿着，行为或是诸如此类的事情。

It actually started back in the United States sometime in the 1980s. I think it first became very popular when people wanted to be like Madonna the pop star.
这个词来源于20世纪80年代的美国。 这个词应该是流行麦当娜的时候，开始被传开的。

Certainly that's when I first heard it very very regularly and a 'wannabe' person is someone who wants to be as famous, or just get some reflected glory from the person, in this case Madonna, that they were admiring. It reflects the colloquial pronunciation.
当然，我就是从那个时候第一次听到这个已经很普遍的词的。 “追星族”通常想出名或者沾上点他们偶像的光。 在这个例子中，麦当娜是他们崇拜的对象。 你也可以从这个词里看出它的口语表达。

Notice, it's not a very polite expression.
注意，这个词不是个礼貌用语。

You can talk about other people as being wannabes, but you wouldn't say that you yourself were a wannabe, and if you say about somebody "he's a wannabe", you're really being a little bit sceptical about that person's state of mind I think, to some extent.
你可以说有些人是盲目崇拜模仿者，但是你不会这样说你自己是一个盲目崇拜模仿者。假如你形容某人是个盲目崇拜者，在我看来，某种程度上，你是在怀疑那个人的精神有问题。

But it's a very popular term - you'll hear everybody use it these days.
但是这个词现在很流行——几乎到处都能听到。