考研翻译能力训练(4)

长期以来．小费一直是让我既感兴趣又恼火的事。许多人以为“tip（小费）”一词是“to insure promptness（确保及时）”的首字母缩写。不过，我看这不可能。自从中世纪英格兰开始付小费以来．学者尚未找到任何早于20世纪的首字母缩合词。多数学者对“tip”一词的起源追溯到17世纪初．认为它源于罪犯的黑话。指“内部消息”。所以，给别的罪犯一个“tip”，即给他某种有价值的东西（消息）。

Tipping is a subject that has long interested and irritated me. Many people think that the word ＂tip＂ is an acronym for ＂to insure promptness＂. However, this is not possible, I think. Since the practice of tipping began in England in the Middle Ages, scholars have not been able to find any acronyms much earlier than the 20th century. Most scholars track the word ＂tip＂ back to the early 1600s, where it originated as criminal slang. It referred to inside information. Therefore, to give another criminal a tip was to give something valuable （information）.