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The words icon and iconic are very popularbut sometimes get a bad press.
偶像和偶像般的是很流行的用詞, 但有時名聲不佳.
Certainly when we read phrases like “Ten icons ofBritish travel literature,”it can be difficult to know what is meant beyond something like"Ten good British travel writers".
當然, 在我們讀到“英國旅行文學的十大偶像(代表性人物)”這樣的短語時, 可能難以領會到“英國十佳旅行作家”之外的意思.
There has been mockery, too, for buildings,which have "enough odd angles, or multicoloured cladding, to claim theadjective 'iconic'".
對有著“各種奇怪角度,或五顏六色的室外裝飾”, 自命“標志性的”建筑, 也是嘲諷不斷.
Eikon in ancient Greek meant a likeness orimage, sometimes an apparition, related to a number of words meaning to seem orappear.
Eikon在古希臘語中的意思是肖像或畫像, 有時指幻象, 與若干意為貌似或好像的單詞有關.
In the original Greek New Testament it isused several times - for instance when Jesus calls for a coin and asks whoseimage (eikon) is on it, then telling his hearers to render unto Caesar what isCaesar's.
在希臘文新約圣經的原文中, 幾次用到eikon –例如, 耶穌要一枚硬幣,問上面有誰的肖像(eikon), 然后對聽眾說, 要把凱撒的歸于凱撒.
When the use of religious images in theeastern Orthodox church was threatened by the iconoclasts (icon-breakers) inthe early 8th Century, St John of Damascus defended them against "thosewho decry the Holy Images" . Images (eikones) were definitely not idols(eidola) he said.
當東方的東正教教堂里宗教肖像的使用在8世紀初受到反對偶像崇拜者的威脅時, 大馬士革的圣約翰為之辯護,反對“那些詆毀圣像的人”. 肖像(eikones)絕不是偶像(eidola), 他說.
The use of icon specifically for areligious image in the Orthodox church hardly appears in English until the 19thCentury. In 1833 the Rev Robert Pinkerton wrote of "six sacred ikons"carried in the Palm Sunday procession in Moscow.
Icon特指東正教教堂里的宗教肖像的用法,直到19世紀才在英語中出現.1833年,平克頓教士記述了莫斯科棕枝主日游行中扛著的 “六個圣像”.
In the West eikon became "icon"and has continued to be used for an image, not necessarily religious.Particularly, the words have come to denote a symbol - a little picture on acomputer display, for instance, or something much grander, as when the Taj Mahalis seen as an "iconic" depiction of India.
Icon一直用于指肖像,但不一定是宗教肖像. 特別是發展到現在,icon已經用來表示一個符號– 例如, 電腦顯示器上的一個小圖標,或更大的一些東西,如泰姬陵被視為印度“標志性的”畫面.
Uses such as "gay icon" mustsurely be influenced by the idea of religious veneration. To be a gay icon likeJudy Garland you do not necessarily have to be gay yourself, any more than asaint on a Russian icon has to be Russian - you only have to be admired.
“同志偶像”這樣的用法肯定受到了宗教崇拜觀念的影響. 成為像朱迪?加蘭那樣的同志偶像,你不必非要自己是同性戀, 如同俄國圣像上的圣人不必非要是俄國人– 你只需要受到崇拜即可.
Meanwhile Winston Churchill could be saidto be an "icon" of British defiance, and Mrs Pankhurst of women'sheroism.
同時, 丘吉爾可謂英式蔑視的“標志人物”, 潘克赫斯特夫人是女性英雄主義的“代表人物”.
