Xiaohua: Hello and welcome to Roundtable’s Word of the Week. This week we’re talking about words and phrases related with Halloween.
John: That’s right. There’re quite a few different monsters, typical costumes that you might see people wearing, so we’re just gonna go through a few of those today.
So first off I want to start with the ever popular vampire. Also sometimes people dress as Count Dracula. And vampire and Count Dracula are actually 2 similar, but separate things.
Xiaohua: 說到萬圣節或者萬圣節的裝扮，很多人就會想到吸血鬼的裝扮。而說到吸血鬼，大家又會想到Count Dracula，德拉庫拉伯爵，但是這兩者其實是有點不同的。
John: You might just look at it this way: Count Dracula is one type of vampire, one person who is also a vampire. Interestingly enough, the myth of Count Dracula as a vampire is based upon a real person from Romania, known as Vlad Tepes. And actually he ended up getting the nickname Vlad the Impaler for the cruelty in which he would treat his enemies.
Xiaohua: 德拉庫拉可以說是一種吸血鬼。而德拉庫拉在小說中的原型是來自一個真實的人物，叫做Vlad the Impaler，穿刺王弗拉德。
John: Yeah. And the word vampire began in eastern Europe around the Balkans and the Caucasus Mountains, and its original usage has nothing to do with sucking blood, or taking a creature’s life essence or something like that. But rather it had to do with someone coming back from the dead as a spirit and just really bugging the people in the village where they were born.
Xiaohua: So something like a ghost.
John: Something like that. Exactly. And now we’re moving on to a werewolf, also known sometimes as a lycanthrope. So basically it’s just the ability for someone to turn from human into a wolf or dog-like creature.
Xiaohua: 狼人，又叫lycanthrope，就是可以隨意或是在某些場合從人變成狼的生物。
John: And then of course there is the mummy, perhaps the easiest costume to do in all history of time. All you got to do is to take some toilet paper and wrap it around your body as many times as possible. But a mummy is basically just a human or an animal whose skins and organs had been preserved due to exposure to chemicals, cold, low humidity or anything like that.
Xiaohua: 木乃伊我們都知道，是來自古埃及的時候，人們對于死尸進行的一種步驟，用香油或香料涂到尸體上用來防腐。
John: And then of course there is the zombie, and I think anyone familiar or a fan of the Walking Dead will know what zombie currently means right now. Basically someone died or something died, and then it becomes reanimated, undead, and it wants to eat brains, living flesh or something like that. But actually the term zombie comes from Afro-Caribbean belief system Vodou or Vodom, wherein a shaman, a witch doctor, could actually cause someone to think they’re dead, and then bring them back to quote-on-quote life.
Xiaohua: Very interesting. 現在萬圣節最流行的裝束應該是裝成zombie，僵尸了。我們通常認為僵尸是由死人轉化的生物，活人如果被它咬到也會變成僵尸，但其實在海地，zombie是巫師可以用幻覺或藥物控制人，讓人昏睡過去，讓他們以為自己已經死去。
John: And then of course there is Frankenstein. So funnily enough, at least in English, Frankenstein, the story by Mary Shelley, the monster is never actually named. The monster has no name. It’s just called the monster. However, in popular culture, now we refer to the monster in that story as Frankenstein. So Frankenstein is a very popular character, or at least used to be, not so much anymore. But we used to see him in TV shows, or comedy shows, like satires, and things like that. But again, it has been a very popular costume during Halloween.
Xiaohua: Frankenstein，科學怪人，是指的瑪麗雪萊的那本科幻小說。本來是科學家的名字叫Frankenstein，但是逐漸大家就把他制造出的這個怪人叫做Frankenstein了。
John: Yes, exactly. And last but not least, we have the western conception of the witch, or sometimes known as the hag. And basically it’s just an older woman, usually with a warp on their nose, and a big crooked nose, and a big hat with a point on top. And they’re supposed to be able to do black magic and things like that. Usually they’re associated with a black cat as well.
Xiaohua: 鷹鉤鼻子、戴著高帽子、手拿魔杖，經常有掃帚和黑貓相伴，這就是我們常見的女巫，the witch. And that’s an easier costume as well.
John: Yeah, it’s an easier costume, but also interestingly enough, the western conception of witch is very, very different from the eastern conception. The word witch is tied up in our religious history you might say what you saw during especially the medieval times but also even later on, is that women would be accused of being a witch. And what that meant was that they were having parties with Satan, the devil, and they were sleeping with the devil and using black magic and things like that in order to control other people. More than likely this was all just superstition, and people were persecuting women for being young usually, and different.
Xiaohua: Exactly. 在中世紀的時候歐洲因為女巫的罪名迫害了不少女性。And that’s all we have for this week’s Word of the Week.