VOA特別英語詞語典故

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.

這裏是VOA特別英語詞語典故節目。

一些短語用來描述重要的人物，或者至少自以爲重要的人。其中一個這樣的表達方式就是bigwig。

17世紀，歐洲的重要人物開始戴假髮，這種假髮叫做wigs。多年之後，假髮wigs越來越大。一個男子所戴的假髮的大小取決於他的重要性。他越重要——或者自認爲越重要——他戴的假髮就越大。一些假髮肥差大，一直蓋到肩部或背部。

今天，bigwig這個詞用來打趣那些自我感覺很重要的人。人們從來不會告訴某個人他是bigwig，而只在背後說。

Big wheel是描述重要的人的另外一個表達方式。Big wheel大人物可能是公司的主心骨，政治領袖，或者著名的電影明星。他們是Big wheel，因爲他們很有能力。他們的所作所爲能夠影響許多人。Big wheels下命令，其他人來實施。在許多機器中，Big wheel大輪帶動小輪轉。

Big wheel在第二次世界大戰後成爲流行用語。這個短語可能來自安裝卡車或小汽車組件的人多年來使用的短語。他們說，如果一個人比較重要，比較有影響力，那麼由他來轉動大輪。

某個東西的頂部是最高的部分。所以，不出所料，top也用在另外一個表達某人很重要的短語中。這個短語就是：top banana。 top banana在喜劇表演中是主角。最有趣的喜劇演員被稱爲top banana，接下來就是second banana，以此類推。

爲什麼用banana來表示呢？早期的喜劇表演通常都有一部分，其中一個喜劇演員會用一個柔軟的.物體敲打另外一個人的頭部。這個物體的形狀很像香蕉。

現在，Top banana仍然在表演行業中使用。然而，這個表達方式還可以用來形容任何領域的重要人物。

kingpin是用來表達重要人物的另外一個短語。這個短語來自保齡球。kingpin是第一個球針。如果正確的用保齡球擊中，kingpin會讓其他九個球針都落下。這就是保齡球遊戲的目標。

所以，一個項目或生意中最重要的人物被叫做kingpin。如果kingpin被移除，項目可能會失敗。

kingpin經常被用來描述一個重要的罪犯，或者犯罪團伙的頭目。例如，報紙可能報道，警方逮捕了偷車團伙的kingpin嫌疑犯。