Words and Their Stories:Bigwig
Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.
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Some expressions describe people who are important, or who at least think they are. One such expression is, bigwig.
In the seventeenth century, important men in Europe began to wear false hair, called wigs. As years passed, wigs began to get bigger. The size of a man's wig depended on how important he was. The more important he was -- or thought he was -- the bigger the wig he wore. Some wigs were so large they covered a man's shoulders or back.
Today, the expression bigwig is used to make fun of a person who feels important. People never tell someone he is a bigwig. They only use the expression behind his back.
Big wheel is another way to describe an important person. A big wheel may be the head of a company, a political leader, a famous movie star. They are big wheels because they are powerful. What they do affects many persons. Big wheels give the orders. Other people carry them out. As in many machines, a big wheel makes the little wheels turn.
Big wheel became a popular expression after World War Two. It probably comes from an expression used for many years by people who fix parts of cars and trucks. They said a person rolled a big wheel if he was important and had influence.
The top of something is the highest part. So it is not surprising that top is part of another expression that describes an important person. The expression is, top banana. A top banana is the leading person in a comedy show. The funniest comedian is called the top banana. The next is second banana. And so on.
Why a banana? A comedy act in earlier days often included a part where one of the comedians would hit the others over the head with a soft object. The object was shaped like a yellow fruit: the banana.
Top banana still is used mainly in show business. Yet the expression also can be used to describe the top person in any area.
A kingpin is another word for an important person. The expression comes from the game of bowling. The kingpin is the number one pin. If hit correctly with the bowling ball, the kingpin will make all the other nine pins fall. And that is the object of the game.
So, the most important person in a project or business is the kingpin. If the kingpin is removed, the business or project is likely to fail.
Kingpin is often used to describe an important criminal, or the leader of a criminal gang. A newspaper may report, for example, that police have arrested the suspected kingpin of a car-stealing operation.
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This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Marilyn Christiano. I'm Warren Scheer.
這里是VOA特別英語(yǔ)詞語(yǔ)典故節(jié)目。
一些短語(yǔ)用來(lái)描述重要的人物，或者至少自以為重要的人。其中一個(gè)這樣的表達(dá)方式就是bigwig。
17世紀(jì)，歐洲的重要人物開始戴假發(fā)，這種假發(fā)叫做wigs。多年之后，假發(fā)wigs越來(lái)越大。一個(gè)男子所戴的假發(fā)的大小取決于他的重要性。他越重要——或者自認(rèn)為越重要——他戴的假發(fā)就越大。一些假發(fā)肥差大，一直蓋到肩部或背部。
今天，bigwig這個(gè)詞用來(lái)打趣那些自我感覺(jué)很重要的人。人們從來(lái)不會(huì)告訴某個(gè)人他是bigwig，而只在背后說(shuō)。
Big wheel是描述重要的人的另外一個(gè)表達(dá)方式。Big wheel大人物可能是公司的主心骨，政治領(lǐng)袖，或者著名的電影明星。他們是Big wheel，因?yàn)樗麄兒苡心芰ΑＫ麄兊乃魉鶠槟軌蛴绊懺S多人。Big wheels下命令，其他人來(lái)實(shí)施。在許多機(jī)器中，Big wheel大輪帶動(dòng)小輪轉(zhuǎn)。
Big wheel在第二次世界大戰(zhàn)后成為流行用語(yǔ)。這個(gè)短語(yǔ)可能來(lái)自安裝卡車或小汽車組件的人多年來(lái)使用的短語(yǔ)。他們說(shuō)，如果一個(gè)人比較重要，比較有影響力，那么由他來(lái)轉(zhuǎn)動(dòng)大輪。
某個(gè)東西的頂部是最高的部分。所以，不出所料，top也用在另外一個(gè)表達(dá)某人很重要的短語(yǔ)中。這個(gè)短語(yǔ)就是：top banana。 top banana在喜劇表演中是主角。最有趣的喜劇演員被稱為top banana，接下來(lái)就是second banana，以此類推。
為什么用banana來(lái)表示呢？早期的喜劇表演通常都有一部分，其中一個(gè)喜劇演員會(huì)用一個(gè)柔軟的物體敲打另外一個(gè)人的頭部。這個(gè)物體的`形狀很像香蕉。
現(xiàn)在，Top banana仍然在表演行業(yè)中使用。然而，這個(gè)表達(dá)方式還可以用來(lái)形容任何領(lǐng)域的重要人物。
kingpin是用來(lái)表達(dá)重要人物的另外一個(gè)短語(yǔ)。這個(gè)短語(yǔ)來(lái)自保齡球。kingpin是第一個(gè)球針。如果正確的用保齡球擊中，kingpin會(huì)讓其他九個(gè)球針都落下。這就是保齡球游戲的目標(biāo)。
所以，一個(gè)項(xiàng)目或生意中最重要的人物被叫做kingpin。如果kingpin被移除，項(xiàng)目可能會(huì)失敗。
kingpin經(jīng)常被用來(lái)描述一個(gè)重要的罪犯，或者犯罪團(tuán)伙的頭目。例如，報(bào)紙可能報(bào)道，警方逮捕了偷車團(tuán)伙的kingpin嫌疑犯。
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