billionaire被误译为“亿万富翁”

今天，马斯克成为人类历史上第一位trillionaire，百度翻译为“万亿富翁”，这是很准确的，因为“万”是10000（有4个零）、“亿”是100000000（有8个零），“万亿”就是1后有4+8=12个零，正是英语的一个trillion。

（从前在英国、澳大利亚的英语中trillion指million million million，即1后接6+6+6=18个零。托美国文化和科技“霸权”的福，现在没有人这样理解了。）
（又：Wiktionary中文版汉译trillionaire为“兆万富翁”。网页用繁体汉字，无疑这是香港或台湾的译法，暂不考虑。）

几十年来，我们一直认为billionaire译为“亿万富翁”很自然。从今天世界上首次出现一位trillionaire起，billionaire一词译为“亿万富翁”就开始值得商榷了。trillionaire当然是“万亿富翁”，但难道将这四个字的前两字颠倒（即billionaire译为“亿万富翁”）就能将它所代表的数值降低1000？这显然是荒谬的。严格地说，billionaire指拥有10亿至999999999999（12个9）元财富的人，英语一律用billion（10亿）附加比它小的数词表达这个数，因此字面翻译billionaire为“有十亿元的人”最准确，通顺点可添加“富翁”二字为“十亿元富翁”，再通顺点可省“元”为“十亿富翁”。无论如何也不应译为“亿万富翁”。这个误译长期以来不明显，但从诞生万亿富翁起，我们就应该考虑纠正这个误译了。

"Permanently pause"?

特朗普说"permanently pause"，汉语直译是“永久暂停”。问Google "Does 'permanently pause' sound like an oxymoron?"（注：oxymoron是“矛盾修辞”）回答Yes, the phrase "permanently pause" is an oxymoron because its two words contradict each other. 问ChatGPT，答It sounds contradictory, but it isn’t actually an oxymoron因为"pause" is being reinterpreted: instead of meaning “temporary stop,” it’s being used in a broader sense of “stop (without specifying duration).” Then permanently clarifies the duration. 问DeepSeek，答它can be considered a mild oxymoron / is technically oxymoronic但through common usage—especially in tech and business—it has developed a clear and practical meaning: to halt a process with no intention of ever resuming it, while often implying that the thing itself is not being deleted. So, while it's an oxymoron in a dictionary sense, it's a useful and accepted phrase in modern language.查Google图书，在1895年的《New York Court of Appeals》中就已出现"permanently pause"。

汉译为“永久暂停”也许非上乘，不妨译作“不设期限地暂停”更符合该词组的真正的意义。假如外国人问为什么那么多“无期徒刑”并且“缓期执行”实际并非“无期”？道理相同，也是因为我们用词不当。

A few medical terms

The broadest English term for 受伤 is injury, while wound refers only to injuries with visible cuts or skin damage, and does not include sprains, strains, or bruises. A sprain is an injury to a ligament (the connection between bones), and a strain is an injury to a muscle or tendon (the connection between muscle and bone). [英语“受伤”最广义的词是injury，而wound仅指有可见伤口或皮肤损伤的伤，不包括扭伤sprain、拉伤strain、瘀伤bruise。扭伤是韧带（ligament，骨骼与骨骼的连接）受伤，拉伤是指肌肉或肌腱（tendon，肌肉与骨骼的连接）受伤。]

By the way, a non-medical person may confuse the two words ligament and tendon. Here's a trick. A ligament is a link, connecting two things of the same type, between one bone and another bone in this case. (Generally speaking, there's no such thing connecting a muscle to another muscle, so that's ruled out.) For tendon, think of the word tension; they both begin with ten- and end with -on. When a muscle pulls on a bone, the muscle is under tension.

In case you can't think of link when seeing ligament, think of the word ligature (as 'fi' for 'f' and 'i' bound by a ligature, or 'æ' for 'a' and 'e'), or even league, which originally meant a pact binding governments.