略谈一些颜色词的惯用语

张振川

    英语中一些表示颜色的词，如红、蓝、白、黑等，都各有其惯用语。如 see red 并不是“看见红色”，而是“发怒”之意；blue 是“忧愁”；white 表示“纯洁”green 有“幼稚”之意；black 可表示“凶恶”；等等。现将英语颜色词的一些习惯用法举例如下：

1. red (红色）
1) When I see a man ill-treating a child I see red. (发怒）
2）The policemen caught the thief red-handed. (当场）
3）When I mentioned it to him, he went red. （脸红，羞愧）

2. green (绿色）
1）He is very green. (幼稚）
2）She was green with envy. (十分嫉妒）
3）What's wrong with you?　You are looking green. (苍白）

3. blue (蓝色）
1）I'm in the blues today. (闷闷不乐）
2）He was blue in the face with cold. (冻得发紫）
3）A thing like that only happens once in a blue moon. （难得；极少）
4)  The news was a great shock to me； it came absolutely out of the blue. (晴天霹雳）

4. white (白色）
1）Mary sometimes tells a white lie. (无恶意的谎言）
2）Henry is white-livered (胆小；懦弱）
3）We want two white coffees （加牛奶的咖啡）
4）A motor-car would be a white elephant to me. （无用而累赘的东西）
5）He boasted a lot about his courage but when danger came he showed the  white feather. （表现胆怯）

5. black (黑色） 
1) He gave me such a black look as I passed him. (恶狠狠地瞪我一眼）
2) He is a black-hearted villain. （黑心肠的）
3）Her action towards her husband showed black ingratitude. （忘恩负义）
4）They went into black for their father (哀悼、举哀）
5）I won't believe it unless I see it in black and white. （白纸黑字）
6）You can never believe what he says; he will swear black is white. （把黑的说成白的）
7）If Mary doesn't study harder she will get in her mother's black books. (记过去；失去好评）
8）George is the black sheep of the family. （败家子）

6. brown (褐色）
1）I left him in a brown study thinking over the question (深思）
2）Aren't you brown!  (晒黑了）

    最后，请看一段有趣的短文：
    Mr. Brown is a very white man. He was looking rather green the other day. He has been feeling blue lately. When I saw him he was in a brown study. I hope he'll soon be in the pink again.
    这段话是什么意思呢？原来是：
    布朗先生是个非常忠实可靠的人。那天，他脸上有病色。近来他感到闷闷不乐。当我见到他时，他在极度深思之中。希望他早日恢复健康。