in singsong, complexifier, even Homer nods

President Trump made the crowd laugh when he started explaining the border wall lawsuit in singsong. https://bit.ly/2UUSJ5i

1月28日，《國家問詢》刊出私人短信和狗仔隊照片，以貝佐斯的婚外情大做文章。 Patricia Wall/The New York Times

每日一詞 ：Complexifier |回應“裸照門”，貝佐斯自創新詞？

全球首富、亞馬遜創始人、《華盛頓郵報》東家傑夫·貝佐斯近日話題不斷。他與妻子協議離婚 ，後被小報踢爆婚外情。在他發布長文指控八卦小報的母公司以不雅照對其敲詐勒索後，他在聲明中使用的一個詞—— complexifier卻意外成為了話題焦點 。時報專欄作者莫琳·多德(Maureen Dowd)表示：“ 貝佐斯創造了今年的年度詞彙 ”。

貝佐斯是這樣說的：My ownership of the Washington Post is a complexifier for me（我擁有《華盛頓郵報》，對我來說，這讓事情變得更複雜了）。他在文中暗示，《華盛頓郵報》對卡舒吉案的報導可能加劇了他與特朗普之間的緊張關係。

許多人對貝佐斯連用兩次這個看起來像是自創詞的詞彙感到不解。事實上，complexifier是個法文詞，意為“讓事情變得更複雜”。儘管這是一個在大多數英語詞典中都沒有出現的複合詞，我們仍可以用它來表示“一個複雜的因素”。

有一次寫文章用了nods like Homer, 美國編輯竟說沒看過，問我甚麼意思。幫我加了一個注： Horace in Ars Poetica (c. 18 BCE), “Indignor quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus” (“I, too am indignant when the worthy Homer nods”) . [The English proverb “Homer nods” or “Even Horner sometimes nods ” is due to Dryden ’s translation
(1677). -Ed.]

EISLAND.COM.TW

你還在用俗氣的“Last but not least”嗎？

筆者在初學中文時，滿喜歡學像是「班門弄斧」、「騎虎難下」這類的成語，然後在說話時盡量找機會用。 可是，話說出口，卻看見對方愣一下、皺一下眉、歪一下頭，露出猶豫、納悶的樣子。筆者肚子裡知道一定有哪裡不對

Definition of even Homer nods in US English: even Homer nods

PHRASE

proverb 

• Even the best person sometimes makes a mistake due to a momentary lack of alertness or attention.

  • ‘But even Homer nods, and Justice White penned a Brennanesque whopper in Garner.’
  • ‘At one point he does give way and lets a character remind us who Tiberius Gracchus was and what happened to him, but even Homer nods.’
  • ‘But at times even Homer nods, and according to the newspaper accounts (if you will look them up) and my own recollection as an eyewitness close at hand, it was not the daughter but rather the wife of President Roosevelt of that day who christened the Kaiser's sailing yacht Meteor.’
  • ‘If even Homer nods, then should we exclude this possibility from the works of his commentators, however learned they may be?’
  • ‘Indeed, when The Star-Spangled Girl first appeared in 1966, it ran simultaneously on Broadway with no fewer than three other Simon hits (Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple and Sweet Charity), but if even Homer nods and Shakespeare has his clunkers, mustn't Neil Simon too have his off days?’
  • ‘But even Homer nods, and so does Nabokov, and to build whole-scale interpretations on details that seem much more explicable as errors is fraught with danger.’
  • ‘Well, even Homer nods, and what Eliot gives is sufficient to evoke the lines he has in mind.’
  • ‘And yet, if even Homer nods, what hope for a mad American cello-player?’
  • ‘I'm a big fan of Gill's work, but even Homer nods, and this one's sleep-writing.’
  • ‘We're big fans of Judge Berzon, but even Homer nods.’