2019年经济学人 约翰逊语言专栏--用委婉语掩盖性暴力会导致更恶劣后果(2)

（单词翻译）

Or consider the English word. Coming from Latin rapere, its oldest sense involves neither sex nor bodily harm; it means to take something by force (as in the adjective, “rapacious”). This represents the attitude of many centuries in which rape¹ was considered a property crime against a husband or father, robbing them of a woman’s virginity or chastity, which were the father’s to give away to a spouse². It was not something done to the woman herself.

或者想想英语单词。Rape 源自拉丁语 rapere，它最古老的意思既不涉及性也不涉及身体伤害；它的意思是用武力取得某物(如形容词“rapacious贪婪的”)。这代表了许多世纪以来的态度，强奸被认为是对丈夫或父亲的财产犯罪，剥夺了她们的贞操或贞操，而贞操是父亲送给配偶的。这不是女性自己做的事。

Fortunately, feminists³ long ago succeeded in placing the woman’s experience at the heart of the matter. But “rape” is now such a powerful and painful word that English-speakers have developed a hazier⁴ vocabulary to talk about and around it instead. “Sexual assault” rose in prominence⁵ in the 1970s. Its adoption⁶ reflected the fact that there were many ways to commit, and experience, traumatic sexual violence; the kind that could rob a woman of her virginity was only one, and need not always be privileged over others. Numerous American states and Canada, for example, no longer have a crime called “rape” on the statute⁷ books, but rather varying degrees of sexual assault.

幸运的是，女权主义者很久以前就成功地将女性的经验置于问题的核心。但“rape 强奸”现在是一个如此强大而痛苦的词，以至于说英语的人已经形成了一个更模糊的词汇来谈论和围绕它。“Sexual assault 性侵犯”在20世纪70年代开始流行起来。这个词的采用反映了这样一个事实，即犯下和经历创伤性暴力的方式有很多；能夺走一个女人童贞的东西只有一种，而且不必总是享有特权。

The breadth of the label “sexual assault” has its uses—for example, when statisticians want to aggregate⁸ different offences. It can convey the sense of violation⁹ that comes with all its manifestations¹⁰. It gives women who have suffered different kinds of harms an umbrella of solidarity¹¹. Finally, victims who use “sexual assault” may themselves not want to be more specific.

“Sexual assault 性侵犯”这个标签的宽度有它的用途——例如，当统计学家想要汇总不同的犯罪行为时。它可以传达所有的表现形式所带来的冒犯感。它为遭受各种伤害的女性提供了团结的保护伞。最后，使用“性侵犯”一次的受害者自己可能不想说得更具体。