Hi, everyone. And welcome back to our new segment【It means what? 】

Yeah~

I'm not convinced.

Okay.

歡迎回來我們的新板塊【詞源考古研究所】. In this segment, we bring you some of the very interesting origin stories of words and phrases. So the word for today is a word, I'm sure a lot of people have heard of, this is the word ‘candidate’.

Oh. Yes.

Like presidential candidate.

PhD candidate.

都是候選人的這個感覺.

Yeah.

Where does it come from? I have a suspicion before you explain, I have a suspicion. It's from Latin.

Well done. It is from Latin.

That's pretty much the answer to 80 or more percent of the etymology question.

Yes. It comes from a Latin word “candidatus”, which means the white robed one.

White robe 就是白色袍子.

Or white toga.

所以 candidatus就是穿白袍子的人.

Yep.

Now this is actually from Roman history, because Rome was a republic for most of its history. And they would have elections for officials and the people that wanted to get elected. So I shouldn't say people, I should say men.

Because women had absolutely no rights back then.

No. Not that many, no. So men who wanted to be elected to the government had to wear a pure white toga.

嗯, 說到古羅馬, 這個toga, 大家看到那些歷史片或者說documentary那些紀錄片里面演出來的長袍, 對吧? 這么一系, 這么一弄, 看著很飄逸的那個, 那個叫做toga.

Yep.

So these togas were special because they were especially whited, and they were used for when they were campaigning.

Especially whited, you use white as a verb?

You can use it in that way. Yeah.

So you mean normal cloth is not enough. They need to make it especially white.

Yes.

Well. It was to show that they were honest. It was to show that they were kind of pure. They was no scandal. And this is actually where the English word ‘candid’ comes from.

稍等一下, 其實中文我們也有這個意向, 我們總說清清白白. 就是那個白的意向, 就是pureness, innocence, honesty. 所以羅馬當時他們就要去競選政府里面, 它一個民主是個共和國, 所以它所有的這些想要去競選的這些男性, because again like we said women had no rights, they would have this especially white toga when they were campaigning.

Yes, and as I say, we now say in English candid, it just means that you're completely honest, completely unbiased. It all comes from the same route.

Can I say I'm a candid person?

You are a very candid person.

You make it sound like that's not a very good word. You just explain candid means honest and unbiased?

It's a good word in lot of aspects. But sometimes being completely honest, might not be a good thing.

So you mean like people who tell brutal truth about absolutely everything, home truth about everything.

Yeah, exactly.

就是說那種直愣愣的那種感覺的, 就是從來不會有任何掩飾, 一切都告訴你. Whether it’s good...

It's this sort of people when you say, do I look fat in this dress? they're like, yes. Is that candid?

Yeah. Pretty much, that's been very, very candid. Yes.

It also reminds me of something. You know, there's an old reality show called “Candid camera”?

Oh, yes.

So they put these camera in hidden places. They have hidden cameras, filming people in unexpected situations like the confusion, the sort of comical thing...

Oh, yeah. I've seen that. Yeah.

其實是一個很古早的真人秀, 就是他們用一些隱藏的攝像頭, 然后比如說拍下人們不經意的一些就挺傻, 或者說挺奇葩的一些舉動.

Now, 安瀾, if you got caught on candid camera, doing something intrinsically stupid, and people are laughing at you, obviously at the footage, would you feel offended or would you be like just for laughs?

Well. I've just started doing live streaming, so I'm kind of used to doing stupid things on camera and people probably laughing at me, So.

I'm sure the audience love you, but before we finish, I have one more thing to mention relating to the word candidate. 中國咱們說讀博士的人, 我們管他叫博士生, doctoral students. But in English it’s often called doctoral candidate. Why is that?

Well. That's because, just because you're in a PHD program, doesn't necessarily mean you're gonna get a PHD.

Oh, of course. Because it's not something you can just feel secure about. Once you're in the program, you have to work very very hard and there's still a very high failure rate.

Well. Exactly. So your candidate because essentially it's your teachers, the professors that are deciding whether or not you are suitable to be a doctor.

I see, 所以才叫博士學位的這個候選人這種感覺.

Exactly.

I see, I know in our audience, there are quite a number of doctoral candidates. So if you are, leave us a comment, and share with us how you feel about the word candidate, and also leave us a comment if you want to recommend any word, or any interesting origin stories that you want us to talk about. And thank you 安瀾 for coming to the show.

Thanks, Lulu. Thanks, everyone.

We'll see you next time.

Bye.