英语中,做坏事的人或犯法的人有个常见的表达法wrong-doer。这个词可以在英汉词典中找到。但在同样的英汉词典中却没good-doer这个表示做好事的人的英语词。这不知是否good-doer不如wrong-doer容易见到的原故。 但英语中却另有一个词do-gooder。请看:
I wondered what these two starry-eyed do-gooders could really accomplish.
Reader's Digest, May l974, p. 80
值得注意的是,do-gooder据WNWD乃是an earnest usu. impractical1 and often naive2 and ineffectual humanitarian3 or reformer(空想的社会改良家),而不是大家所说的好人好事的好人或做好事的人。假如大家望文生义地把汉语做好事的人,译成英语do-gooder,那就会引起误解误解大家对好人好事所持的一定态度。
说了do-gooder和good-doer有什么区别之后,不免要联系到good-looker这个词。此词得从常见的good-looking说起good-looker该是由good-looking逆生而来的吧。从词义来讲,前者是漂亮的,后者当然该是漂亮的人了。请看:
I can quite understand that two attractive young ladies like your daughters might find it dull here, said Cleveland. Good lookers, aren't they? said Mr. Dinsmead with fatherly pride.
Agatha Christie: The Hound of Death, Fonata/Collins, 1933/78, p. 178