考过GRE的你懂吗？老外都会用错的10个英文词# Translation - 译林
z*e
1 楼
第十位：Refute
“Refute” means to“disprove with evidence” and yet it's commonly used,
even by professional writers, to mean“rebut” which carries a similar
meaning but isn’t quite so strong, as it can also mean“argue against.”
The example here(“Simon Cowell refutes‘scandalous’ claims he helped
billionaire hide assets from wife he was divorcing”) is from a recent Daily
Mail article. For those outside the UK, the Daily Mail is a newspaper which
regularly rages against falling educational standards. A special mention to
Sarah Palin who invented a new word“refudiate”; the usage suggests she
meant repudiate.
“Refute”意为“通过证据来反对”，然而它常被普通人甚至职业作家当作“rebut(反
驳)”一词使用。尽管两者意思相近，都会有“反驳”之意，但“rebut”的语气不如“
refute”强。有个例子来自近期的每日邮报文章：西蒙•科威尔“refute驳斥”
“丑闻”，声称他帮百万富翁私藏财产，躲过前妻视线。对于那些没有生活在英国的人
来说，每日邮报只是个不定时抱怨一下教育水平下降的报纸。值得一提的是，莎拉
8226;佩林创建了新词汇“refudiate(否认)”,用法等同于“repudiate”，意为“否认
”。
第九位：Instant
Nowadays, it's almost universally assumed that“instant” actually means“
quickly” or“without intervention.” Obviously, it doesn’t. It actually
refers to a precise moment in time. Google Instant is a good example of this
word being abused.
如今，几乎所有人都认为“instant”就是“迅速”或“连续”的意思，但显然不是这
样。它事实上是指在精准的时间内。谷歌即时搜索就是一个滥用该词的典型例子。
第八位：Enormity
“Enormity” means“extreme evil”, but it's often used to mean“
enormousness”. US President, George HW Bush missed this one when he said
after being elected that he“Couldn’t believe the enormity of the situation
.” A perfect example of irony(which, in the context I have just used it, is
correct).
“Enormity”意为“穷凶极恶”，但它却常用来指“巨大”之意。美国前总统，乔治
8226;沃克•布什，曾经误用过该词，在就职典礼上，他发言道“没想到任务如此
之大。”这是个具有讽刺意味的例子。
第七位：Less
Less is used when comparing quantities that can’t be counted; for example,
“I’d like less milk.” If you’re comparing quantities(like bagels, for
example) then“fewer” should be used. But you don’t win many competitions
with a tie break if you point out that“25 words or less” should actually
be“25 words or fewer.” The antonyms“more than” and“greater than” get
similarly misused. Programmers will know the comparison operators are
referred to as“greater than and less than”; it should really be“greater
than and fewer than”.
“Less”用于形容不可数名词，如“我想喝一点牛奶。”如果形容可数名词，如百吉饼
之类，这时，那就应该用“fewer”。但如果你比赛平局时你指出“25字或less(更少)
”其实就是“25字或fewer(更少)。”这种误用同样也出现在反义词“more than”和“
greater than”。程序员知道指代“greater than and less than(比。。。大，比。
。。小)”的比较运算符实为“greater than and fewer than(比。。。大，比。。。
小)”。
第六位：Chronic
Chronic is originally a medical term meaning“long term”; it has the same
root as“chronometer”. Someone suffering from chronic pain has long term
pain. It's often used to mean“very bad”– in fact“acute” should be used
instead. Despite that, it's easy to find recent examples:“O’Brien: INM in
‘chronic’ state”.
“Chronic”原为医学术语，意指“长期”，它与“chronometer精密计时器”含有相同
的词根。如“患慢性病的人，承受着长期痛苦。”但它却常被用于形容“严重的”—事
实上，应该用“acute”一词来替代。除了这个错用之外，还有其他的事例，如最近的
奥伯里恩说道“INM为一种慢性病。
第五位：Literally
This is such a widely known misused word that examples are less common, as
most people know to avoid the term– which should be used to describe
something that is actually happening(for example,“He literally danced with
joy.”) but should not be used for emphasis(“Steam was literally coming out
of his ears.”) This example quotes a, now deceased, reverend gentleman who
seemed to rejoice in, frankly, daft opinions, including one about a“
literal homosexual steamroller”:
这个词被错误使用的频率相当高，但大多人都选择词避而不用，因而错用实例不多。它
本用来描述正在发生的某事，如，“他正高兴的手舞足蹈”。但是不能被用作强调，如
“蒸汽确实从他的耳朵里冒出来。”坦白的说，这个例子形容已故绅士享受“literal
homosexual steamroller(“正要扑倒对方的同性恋”)的愚蠢画面。
第四位：Panacea
“Panacea” means a cure all; it comes from the same Greek root as“panorama
”. It shouldn’t be used to imply a cure for a single thing, and yet here
is a newspaper saying: “SOUTH AFRICA: Welfare payments– a panacea for
poverty?”
“panacea”意指包治百病的灵药，它与希腊语“panorama全景”含有同一词根。它不
能用来形容对单一事物的治疗，而有家报纸上却说“南非：社会福利——穷人的“a
panacea”一种灵丹?”
第三位：Disinterested
Does“disinterested” mean the same as“uninterested”? No. Here's an
example of misuse:“TomTom Disinterested in Windows Phone7 Too?”.“
Disinterested” means that a party is independent; so a dispute might be
settled by a disinterested party.“Uninterested” means the party has no
interest.“I asked John if he wanted to go to the cricket, but he was
completely uninterested.”
“disinterested”和“uninterested”意思相同吗?不是。这里有一个误用的例子，“
汤姆对微软视窗系统“disinterested不公正”吗?”“Disinterested”意指公正;所以
纷争可以通过公正的人来解决。而“uninterested”是指没有兴趣。如，“我问约翰是
否想去打板球，但他一点儿也’uninterested不感兴趣’。”
第二位：Decimate
Decimation was a Roman punishment where one in ten men was killed. So when
something is decimated, it implies that ten percent of it is destroyed.“
Devastate” is almost certainly a better word for most usages and yet:“New
York City budget will decimate libraries”.
“Decimation”曾用来形容古罗马的一项刑罚：十个人中死一个。所以当“decimate”
用于形容一件事情时，它意味着毁灭了十分之一的程度。“纽约市的预算将会毁掉图书
馆”中的“decimate毁掉”一词用“Devastate”更合适。所以相对来说，“Devastate
”更常用。
1、第一位：Ultimate
From the Latin, this means the last in a list of items. But it's so widely
used to indicate the best; a google search for“ultimate phone” gives307
million hits. I'd argue that the last phone has yet to be made. This is
probably the most misused word on the Internet; type“ultimate” into google
and thousands of hits come up, pretty much all of them using it as“the
best”. However, for a change, this is the ultimate entry in this list.
在拉丁语中，它用于表示列表中的最后一项，但却经常被用来形容“最好的”。在谷歌
引擎上搜索“ultimate phone最好的电话”的次数高达30700万。对此我坚持认为是“
最后一通电话”。该词可能是网上误用最多的单词了。在谷歌中输入“ultimate”，会
出现上千个搜索结果，但大多数都把它用作“最好的”。不过，换个话题说，这的确是
本文最后一个词目了。
来源：外研社
“Refute” means to“disprove with evidence” and yet it's commonly used,
even by professional writers, to mean“rebut” which carries a similar
meaning but isn’t quite so strong, as it can also mean“argue against.”
The example here(“Simon Cowell refutes‘scandalous’ claims he helped
billionaire hide assets from wife he was divorcing”) is from a recent Daily
Mail article. For those outside the UK, the Daily Mail is a newspaper which
regularly rages against falling educational standards. A special mention to
Sarah Palin who invented a new word“refudiate”; the usage suggests she
meant repudiate.
“Refute”意为“通过证据来反对”，然而它常被普通人甚至职业作家当作“rebut(反
驳)”一词使用。尽管两者意思相近，都会有“反驳”之意，但“rebut”的语气不如“
refute”强。有个例子来自近期的每日邮报文章：西蒙•科威尔“refute驳斥”
“丑闻”，声称他帮百万富翁私藏财产，躲过前妻视线。对于那些没有生活在英国的人
来说，每日邮报只是个不定时抱怨一下教育水平下降的报纸。值得一提的是，莎拉
8226;佩林创建了新词汇“refudiate(否认)”,用法等同于“repudiate”，意为“否认
”。
第九位：Instant
Nowadays, it's almost universally assumed that“instant” actually means“
quickly” or“without intervention.” Obviously, it doesn’t. It actually
refers to a precise moment in time. Google Instant is a good example of this
word being abused.
如今，几乎所有人都认为“instant”就是“迅速”或“连续”的意思，但显然不是这
样。它事实上是指在精准的时间内。谷歌即时搜索就是一个滥用该词的典型例子。
第八位：Enormity
“Enormity” means“extreme evil”, but it's often used to mean“
enormousness”. US President, George HW Bush missed this one when he said
after being elected that he“Couldn’t believe the enormity of the situation
.” A perfect example of irony(which, in the context I have just used it, is
correct).
“Enormity”意为“穷凶极恶”，但它却常用来指“巨大”之意。美国前总统，乔治
8226;沃克•布什，曾经误用过该词，在就职典礼上，他发言道“没想到任务如此
之大。”这是个具有讽刺意味的例子。
第七位：Less
Less is used when comparing quantities that can’t be counted; for example,
“I’d like less milk.” If you’re comparing quantities(like bagels, for
example) then“fewer” should be used. But you don’t win many competitions
with a tie break if you point out that“25 words or less” should actually
be“25 words or fewer.” The antonyms“more than” and“greater than” get
similarly misused. Programmers will know the comparison operators are
referred to as“greater than and less than”; it should really be“greater
than and fewer than”.
“Less”用于形容不可数名词，如“我想喝一点牛奶。”如果形容可数名词，如百吉饼
之类，这时，那就应该用“fewer”。但如果你比赛平局时你指出“25字或less(更少)
”其实就是“25字或fewer(更少)。”这种误用同样也出现在反义词“more than”和“
greater than”。程序员知道指代“greater than and less than(比。。。大，比。
。。小)”的比较运算符实为“greater than and fewer than(比。。。大，比。。。
小)”。
第六位：Chronic
Chronic is originally a medical term meaning“long term”; it has the same
root as“chronometer”. Someone suffering from chronic pain has long term
pain. It's often used to mean“very bad”– in fact“acute” should be used
instead. Despite that, it's easy to find recent examples:“O’Brien: INM in
‘chronic’ state”.
“Chronic”原为医学术语，意指“长期”，它与“chronometer精密计时器”含有相同
的词根。如“患慢性病的人，承受着长期痛苦。”但它却常被用于形容“严重的”—事
实上，应该用“acute”一词来替代。除了这个错用之外，还有其他的事例，如最近的
奥伯里恩说道“INM为一种慢性病。
第五位：Literally
This is such a widely known misused word that examples are less common, as
most people know to avoid the term– which should be used to describe
something that is actually happening(for example,“He literally danced with
joy.”) but should not be used for emphasis(“Steam was literally coming out
of his ears.”) This example quotes a, now deceased, reverend gentleman who
seemed to rejoice in, frankly, daft opinions, including one about a“
literal homosexual steamroller”:
这个词被错误使用的频率相当高，但大多人都选择词避而不用，因而错用实例不多。它
本用来描述正在发生的某事，如，“他正高兴的手舞足蹈”。但是不能被用作强调，如
“蒸汽确实从他的耳朵里冒出来。”坦白的说，这个例子形容已故绅士享受“literal
homosexual steamroller(“正要扑倒对方的同性恋”)的愚蠢画面。
第四位：Panacea
“Panacea” means a cure all; it comes from the same Greek root as“panorama
”. It shouldn’t be used to imply a cure for a single thing, and yet here
is a newspaper saying: “SOUTH AFRICA: Welfare payments– a panacea for
poverty?”
“panacea”意指包治百病的灵药，它与希腊语“panorama全景”含有同一词根。它不
能用来形容对单一事物的治疗，而有家报纸上却说“南非：社会福利——穷人的“a
panacea”一种灵丹?”
第三位：Disinterested
Does“disinterested” mean the same as“uninterested”? No. Here's an
example of misuse:“TomTom Disinterested in Windows Phone7 Too?”.“
Disinterested” means that a party is independent; so a dispute might be
settled by a disinterested party.“Uninterested” means the party has no
interest.“I asked John if he wanted to go to the cricket, but he was
completely uninterested.”
“disinterested”和“uninterested”意思相同吗?不是。这里有一个误用的例子，“
汤姆对微软视窗系统“disinterested不公正”吗?”“Disinterested”意指公正;所以
纷争可以通过公正的人来解决。而“uninterested”是指没有兴趣。如，“我问约翰是
否想去打板球，但他一点儿也’uninterested不感兴趣’。”
第二位：Decimate
Decimation was a Roman punishment where one in ten men was killed. So when
something is decimated, it implies that ten percent of it is destroyed.“
Devastate” is almost certainly a better word for most usages and yet:“New
York City budget will decimate libraries”.
“Decimation”曾用来形容古罗马的一项刑罚：十个人中死一个。所以当“decimate”
用于形容一件事情时，它意味着毁灭了十分之一的程度。“纽约市的预算将会毁掉图书
馆”中的“decimate毁掉”一词用“Devastate”更合适。所以相对来说，“Devastate
”更常用。
1、第一位：Ultimate
From the Latin, this means the last in a list of items. But it's so widely
used to indicate the best; a google search for“ultimate phone” gives307
million hits. I'd argue that the last phone has yet to be made. This is
probably the most misused word on the Internet; type“ultimate” into google
and thousands of hits come up, pretty much all of them using it as“the
best”. However, for a change, this is the ultimate entry in this list.
在拉丁语中，它用于表示列表中的最后一项，但却经常被用来形容“最好的”。在谷歌
引擎上搜索“ultimate phone最好的电话”的次数高达30700万。对此我坚持认为是“
最后一通电话”。该词可能是网上误用最多的单词了。在谷歌中输入“ultimate”，会
出现上千个搜索结果，但大多数都把它用作“最好的”。不过，换个话题说，这的确是
本文最后一个词目了。
来源：外研社
