小词详解 | lust

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小词详解 | lust
lust 英 [lʌst] 美 [lʌst]

TEM8 GRE

外刊例句

  • Typically the acquirer overpays for the synergies on offer, exaggerates or overestimates them in its lust to justify a deal, or botches the subsequent integration of the organisations.
    通常收购方为取得协同效应会支付过高的对价,而因为急于合理化交易,又往往夸大、高估协同效应,或者将随后的机构整合弄得一团糟。
    ——《经济学人》
  • It is a book in which breakdown is rampant, suicide is rampant, hatred is rampantlust is rampant.
    这本书里有着汹涌的崩溃、自杀、憎恨与欲望。
    ——《纽约时报》

基本释义

[noun] a passionate desire for something
[名词] 对某事物的热情渴望

深入解读

Lust 是一个与熟词 last 不仅拼写相似,而且发音也相似的单词,本义是指“强烈的性欲、色欲、淫欲”,多用于贬义,强调与爱情无关,比如:

  • 她的情夫是个积习难改的调情老手。他们私通纯粹是受淫欲的驱使。
    Her lover is an incorrigible flirt. Their affair was driven by pure lust.

中文俗语里常说“万恶淫为首”,英语也不例外,从其本义出发更被引申用于表示“强烈的欲望、贪欲、享受欲”,多指一种强烈需要得到满足的渴望,并常暗示被贪得无厌的欲望所支配,比如:

  • 人们的欲望不该过分。如你所知,每一杯过量的酒都是魔鬼酿成的毒汁。
    The lust of men must not be overdone. As you know, every inordinate cup is unblessed and the ingredient is a devil.
  • 她对权力的贪恋使她与同事们疏远了。
    Her lust for power estranged her from her colleagues.

用作动词时, lust 自然除了表示“有强烈的性欲、贪欲、色欲”外,也引申指“有极强的欲望、渴望、贪求”,常搭配介词 after 或 for ,比如:

  • 她浑身上下每个毛孔都散发着性感。从我听到的来看,半个公司的人都想和她上床。
    She oozes sexuality from every pore. From what I hear, half the company is lusting after her.
  • 长期以来,我一直在贪求名望。
    I've been lusting after prestige for ages.

另外, lust 也可以和其他单词合在一起构成复合词,比如常见的有 wanderlust (旅行欲、漫游癖)、bloodlust(杀戮欲、暴力欲)。

双语名著

What did maintain a hold on it in the hours when she was not indignant was an ever-wakeful lust of expenditure, added to a natural contempt for the man who paid and to a perpetual passion for consumption and waste, which took pride in the ruin of her lovers.
除了生气的时候,她心里想的总是怎样花钱,她对拿钱供她不断挥霍的男人,天生怀着蔑视,她对情夫们的破产而感到洋洋得意。

出自法国作家爱弥尔·左拉(Émile Zola)创作的长篇小说《娜娜》(Nana)。

同近义词

  • appetite: a strong desire or liking for something
  • desire: a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen
  • urge: a strong desire or impulse