最近台灣籠罩在一片「馬屁文化」中:馬屁題、馬屁橋、馬屁軍
…處處馬屁聲，難怪謝院長要大家多注意「個人衛生」
[黃玟君教授翻譯 摘自聯合報 ]
Over the past few days,Taiwan has been shrouded in the
"brown-nosing culture." Some examples of those are the "brown-nosing questions," the "brown-nosing bridge," and the "brown-nosing troops." With so much negative wordplay going around,it is not hard to understand why the Premier of Minister is telling the general public to mind their "personal hygiene."
[我的寫法]
In the past few days,brown-nosing culture has enveloped
Taiwan,for example:brown-nosing questions、brown-nosing bridge、brwon-nosing troops…etc. No wonder the Premier of Minister asked the public pay attention to their "personal hygiene."
為何拍馬屁稱 brown-nose?
答:美國人認為最諂媚的事, 莫過於親別人的屁股. 在親別人屁股時,
鼻子會沾到屎, 而屎的顏色是棕色的. 故親人屁股者, 就成了brown noser.
教授除了教書外還要研究，想必生活一定很忙碌，想不到黃教授百忙之中還抽空回答讀者來信，著實令人感動，在此感謝黃教授的答覆。以下內容摘自台北科大黃玟君的回信。
xx妳好！
謝謝你的問題。
關於brown-nose，根據可靠來源，是與 kiss someone's ass
（也是拍馬屁的意思）有關，親人家屁屁時可能會沾到一點「糞」，因而把鼻子弄成棕色，這是普遍傳說brown-nose的由來。因此有人說
brwon-nose不太文雅，不過許多不知道這個典故的人並不這麼覺得，反而覺得kiss
ass比較粗俗。不過中文的「拍馬屁」其實也不是很文雅，所以我寫專欄時便選了與之相當的 brown-nose。
希望這個答覆妳能滿意！
對了，聯合報專欄的結集會於八月底出書，書名為「用英文寫台灣」，聯經出版，屆時再請妳多多支持喔！
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