Will的美语课

不知道你是否熟悉这个短语: writ large，总之我是今天首次见到。一番研究之后发现，它其实是个很实用的英文表达，来和我学习它的发音和用法吧。

本来，Will是想研究一下“Fifty Shades of Grey”（中译名：《五十度灰》）这个BDSM题材的小说系列为何如此爆红。结果看到了该书作者E.L.James的一段访谈，她在分享这部颇具争议作品的创作起源时，用到了”writ large”这个短语。原文如下：

James initially wrote fan fiction under the pen name “Snowqueen’s Icedragon”, with her most notable work being a Twilight fanfiction that eventually developed into Fifty Shades of Grey, which was subsequently adapted into a film. James has spoken of her shock at the success of the book. “The explosion of interest has taken me completely by surprise” she said. James has described the Fifty Shades trilogy as “my midlife crisis, writ large. All my fantasies in there, and that’s it.” …

上段英文的大意是：最初，James以写fanfiction（粉丝自创小说）起家，笔名为“Snowqueen’s Icedragon”。其最引人瞩目的作品是为《暮光之城》所写的一部fanfiction，最终演变成为《Fifty Shades of Grey》，并被改编成电影。该书的大获成功，James自己也始料未及：“这部作品的受欢迎程度绝对让我大吃一惊”。James将Fifty Shades of Grey三部曲形容为：“我的中年危机，经过了放大。其中有自己所有的幻想，就是这样。”

Writ large，Dictionary.com对它的英文解释为：Signified, expressed, or embodied with greater magnitude, as in That book on Lincoln is simply an article writ large。（用更浓重的笔墨去象征，表达，或是体现。比如：那部关于林肯的书，实际上不过是一篇文章的放大版而已）。

在中文里，writ large可考虑翻译为：放大过的，更明显的。通常位于名词后面，作为形容词对其进行修饰。

关于writ large的起源，Wiktionary给出了如下解释：”writ (“written”) + large; a reference to Plato’s Republic, wherein he describes the state (like the city-state) as being like the individual, but larger and easier to examine。”该词由writ和large构成，其中writ可以理解为written的缩写（注意并非指单词writ，writ的意思是”令状”）；有时也指柏拉图的《理想国》，其中他将国家比作个人，只是规模更大，更容易对其进行审视。

Writ large怎么读呢？Writ large的发音是：/rit laːrdʒ/，注意/i/是个短元音。你可以关注微信公众号：Will的美语课，回复writlarge可以收听发音。

另外，根据Cambridge Dictionaries Online，writ large被归为formal类（used in serious writing, or for communicating with people in a serious or polite way）。所以你会更多地在正式谈话或文章中见到这个表达哦。