One of the most challenging aspects of learning a new language such as English is picking up slang words and expressions that aren’t even found in textbooks. To make matters even more difficult, new slang is introduced to the language all the time, old slang dies out, and sometimes regular words change into slang with totally different meanings over time. In this article, we’d like to give two examples of the latter.
學習像英文之類的新語言，最有挑戰性的部分就是學那些甚至在教科書裡都沒教的俚語及用語。更難的是，語言中一直會出現新的俚語，舊俚語過時就不用，有時候，一般生活用字常常會轉變成意思全然不同的俚語。這篇文章會介紹兩個例子。

The first example of evolving slang is the word ‘gay.’ For many centuries, this English adjective meant ‘happy’ or ‘merry’, so to have a ‘gay time’ meant to have a good time. In the first half of the 20th century the word gay started to be used to refer to homosexuals, as either an adjective or a noun, and by the end of the century, the usage of gay meaning ‘happy’ was seldom used. In the 21st century, people also started to use ‘gay’ as an adjective meaning ‘bad’ or ‘inferior’, as in, “this movie is so gay!” However, this usage is considered offensive and we don’t recommend using it.
第一個俚語演化的例子就是「gay」這個字。數百年來，這個英語形容詞意思表「開心的」或「快樂的」，因此有段「gay time」就表示「玩得開心」。20世紀前半，這個字開始被用來指同性戀，可當形容詞或名詞使用。20世紀末，幾乎沒有人用這個字來表示「開心的」的意思。到了21世紀，人們也開始把「gay」的形容詞意思當作「不好的」或「劣等的」，就像句子「this movie is so gay!」表「這部電影真爛！」。但這個用法很冒犯人，因此我們也不建議大家使用。

Our second interesting example is the word ‘sick’. This adjective used to (and still does) mean ‘ill’ or ‘unhealthy’, but in the last 40 years, people also started to say it to mean ‘gross’ or ‘disgusting’. For example, if you unintentionally stepped on dog poop, you might exclaim, “sick!” Interestingly enough, in the last 10 years, some people also started to say ‘sick’ to mean just about the opposite, for example, “this song is sick!” meaning “this song is awesome!”
介紹第二個有趣的例字是「sick」。這個形容詞曾經(現在也還是)表「生病的」或「不健康的」，但這40年來，人們也開始用來表「噁心的」或「厭惡的」。舉例來說，假如你不小心踩到狗屎，你可能就會說「噁心！」。有趣的是，這10年來，有些人也開始用「sick」這個字來表示相反的意思，譬如「this song is sick!」就表示「這首歌真棒！」

Vocabulary 好字精選

1. evolve (v) grow/change/develop  演化，演變
The giraffe evolved a longer neck to reach leaves high up in trees.  
長頸鹿演化出較長的脖子來吃到樹上的葉子。

2. latter (n) the second of two previously mentioned things, as opposed to ‘the former’ 後者
Recently I traveled to Spain and France. I’d like to tell you about the latter.        
最近我去西班牙和法國旅行。我想要告訴你去法國旅行的事。

3. homosexual (n/adj) gay  同性戀
Fred finally came out of the closet and told all his friends that he was homosexual.   
Fred終於出櫃告訴他的朋友他是同志。

4. inferior (adj) lower in quality or level  (地位)低等的，(品質)較差的
Jamison feels inferior around Jim because Jim is such a successful person.
Jamison在Jim身邊覺得低人一等，因為Jim很成功。

5. offensive (adj) causing offense to others 冒犯人的
Trump’s comments and behavior have been highly offensive to many people. 
Trump的評論與行為十分冒犯他人。

6. unintentionally (adv) not on purpose 無意的，無心的
The cat unintentionally knocked the vase off the cabinet. 
貓咪不小心弄倒櫃子上的花瓶。

7. exclaim (v) shout in surprise (由於興奮、痛苦、憤怒等)驚叫，呼喊
“Stop!” exclaimed the woman when she saw her child about to run off the train platform. 
當女子看到她的孩子要跑出月台範圍時，她大喊「停！」。

8. awesome (adj) very cool 令人驚嘆的
“That was awesome!” said the teenage boy after the girl kissed him.
女孩親了那名青少年男孩後，他說「那個吻真棒！」。