Homely

今天在看The Michigan Guide的時候看到一段話是這麼說的(page 47)：

 One famous example is the word homely, which once meant "related to the home." Its current meaning is "not very attractive." This modern meaning can be logically connected to the meaning of its parts (a person who is not very attractive may not get invited to many social gatherings, so he or she stays at home a lot), but most native speakers of English probably don't make this connection when they use homely. 



翻成中文就是：

有一個著名的例子就是"宅"，它原本的意思是跟家有關的，不過現在引申為"不怎麼有吸引力的"，現在的用法是可以合理的聯想的(一個人如果沒什麼吸引力，就沒人要鳥他，只好每天關在家裡)，不過現在用宅這個字的時候美國人大樣不會作這樣的聯想吧。



看來英文跟中文有些想法還是挺像的，不過我記得"宅"的用法好像是從日文來的，總之宅男翻成英文用homely man應該ok吧 :D