Like the people of any country, the British are given to loudly exclaiming something whenever they are startled; unlike most people, however, the restrictions on the English language that are caused by classic British politeness mean that such phrases are often absolute nonsense. Let’s take a look at some.

　　和其他各國的小伙伴們一樣，英國人在被震驚時也會大聲驚呼。不過和大多數人不同，因為受傳統英式禮貌的限制，這些表達震驚的短語通常都沒有什么實際意義。下面就一起來領略一下英式粗口吧！

　　BLOODY HELL!

　　One of the most common and versatile of British exclamation, ‘Bloody hell’ is what we linguistics call a minced oath, as the word ‘bloody’ is probably a shortening of ‘By Our Lady’ (i.e. the Virgin Mary). Originally, then, this probably meant something like ‘by our Lady, all Hell’s about to break loose because of this thing that’s surprised me!’ It’s a little bit easier to say these days.

　　這是最常見并通用于各種場合的英式驚嘆詞之一。從語言學上來說，“Bloody hell”是一種避免爆粗的委婉表達。“bloody”應該是“By Our Lady”（即圣母瑪利亞）的縮略語。這個詞組最初的意思大概就是：“圣母在上，天都要塌了！這實在太令人吃驚了！”。相比之下，現在的說法還是容易多了！

　　BLIMEY!

　　This one is perhaps a little archaic now. Another minced oath, ‘Blimey!’ – or, less commonly, ‘Cor blimey!’ – is a shortening of the saying ‘God blind me!’ Hopefully you’re starting to see the pattern here: most British exclamations have their roots in religious oaths. This is because swearing by God was taken very seriously, so if you said ‘God blind me’ everyone would know you were truly pissed off and should probably be left alone.

　　這個詞匯也是一種委婉表達，不過已經略顯過時。它的另一種不太常見的說法是“Cor blimey!”。“Blimey!”是“God blind me!（上帝蒙騙了我）”的縮寫。你可能已經發現了：大部分英式驚嘆詞都來源于宗教用語——因為對著上帝宣下的誓言都是嚴肅莊重的，所以如果你說“上帝蒙騙了我”，那么所有人都會知道你是真的非常生氣，想要一個人呆著冷靜一下。

　　DARN/DANG!

　　These two interchangeable words are polite ways of saying ‘Damn’, though as everybody knows what you mean it’s a wonder anybody bothers. Like ‘Blimey’, saying these in ordinary conversation might make you sound a bit 19th century.

　　這兩個可以互換的詞語是“Damn”一詞的禮貌說法，不過其實所有人都知道你想表達的是什么意思，有沒有稍微“禮貌”一點，也沒有人會在意。就像“Blimey”一樣，在日常會話中使用“Darn”或者“Dang”會讓你瞬間穿越回十九世紀！

　　I SAY!

　　Now we’re really going back in time. This is a classic British phrase, probably not said in any serious since 1891, which consists of loudly exclaiming that you’re about to say something, but then actually sort of chickening out and deciding just to let ‘I say!’ do the business.

　　現在我們真的要回到過去了！“I say!”是一個經典的英式短語，大概在1891年后就沒有在正式場合被使用過了。使用這個短語的大致場景是：你的一句大聲驚呼剛剛開頭，后面的話還沒出口卻又臨陣退縮，于是決定說完“I say!”便就此打住。

　　STREWTH!

　　In a similar way to ‘Blimey’, ‘Strewth’ is a shortening of ‘By God’s truth’, and is probably the most outdated word on our list – although it has enjoyed something of a recent revival in Australia. Still, if you’re ever asked to star in a traditional English drawing room drama, you’ll be equipped with exactly the right ways to express a truly British kind of surprise.

　　和“Blimey”相似，“Strewth”是“By God’s truth”的縮略語，這大概是這篇文章中最過時的一個驚嘆詞了，盡管最近它在澳大利亞還流行了一陣子。如果你被叫去演傳統的英國客廳話劇，用上這個詞，絕對能精確傳達出原汁原味的英式“臥槽”！

（來源：滬江英語，編輯 Helen）