The words icon and iconic are very popularbut sometimes get a bad press.

偶像和偶像般的是很流行的用词, 但有时名声不佳.

Certainly when we read phrases like “Ten icons ofBritish travel literature,”it can be difficult to know what is meant beyond something like"Ten good British travel writers".

当然, 在我们读到“英国旅行文学的十大偶像(代表性人物)”这样的短语时, 可能难以领会到“英国十佳旅行作家”之外的意思.

There has been mockery, too, for buildings,which have "enough odd angles, or multicoloured cladding, to claim theadjective 'iconic'".

对有着“各种奇怪角度,或五颜六色的室外装饰”, 自命“标志性的”建筑, 也是嘲讽不断.

Eikon in ancient Greek meant a likeness orimage, sometimes an apparition, related to a number of words meaning to seem orappear.

Eikon在古希腊语中的意思是肖像或画像, 有时指幻象, 与若干意为貌似或好像的单词有关.

In the original Greek New Testament it isused several times - for instance when Jesus calls for a coin and asks whoseimage (eikon) is on it, then telling his hearers to render unto Caesar what isCaesar's.

在希腊文新约圣经的原文中, 几次用到eikon –例如, 耶稣要一枚硬币,问上面有谁的肖像(eikon), 然后对听众说, 要把凯撒的归于凯撒.

When the use of religious images in theeastern Orthodox church was threatened by the iconoclasts (icon-breakers) inthe early 8th Century, St John of Damascus defended them against "thosewho decry the Holy Images" . Images (eikones) were definitely not idols(eidola) he said.

当东方的东正教教堂里宗教肖像的使用在8世纪初受到反对偶像崇拜者的威胁时, 大马士革的圣约翰为之辩护,反对“那些诋毁圣像的人”. 肖像(eikones)绝不是偶像(eidola), 他说.

The use of icon specifically for areligious image in the Orthodox church hardly appears in English until the 19thCentury. In 1833 the Rev Robert Pinkerton wrote of "six sacred ikons"carried in the Palm Sunday procession in Moscow.

Icon特指东正教教堂里的宗教肖像的用法,直到19世纪才在英语中出现.1833年,平克顿教士记述了莫斯科棕枝主日游行中扛着的 “六个圣像”.

In the West eikon became "icon"and has continued to be used for an image, not necessarily religious.Particularly, the words have come to denote a symbol - a little picture on acomputer display, for instance, or something much grander, as when the Taj Mahalis seen as an "iconic" depiction of India.

Icon一直用于指肖像,但不一定是宗教肖像. 特别是发展到现在,icon已经用来表示一个符号– 例如, 电脑显示器上的一个小图标,或更大的一些东西,如泰姬陵被视为印度“标志性的”画面.

Uses such as "gay icon" mustsurely be influenced by the idea of religious veneration. To be a gay icon likeJudy Garland you do not necessarily have to be gay yourself, any more than asaint on a Russian icon has to be Russian - you only have to be admired.

“同志偶像”这样的用法肯定受到了宗教崇拜观念的影响. 成为像朱迪?加兰那样的同志偶像,你不必非要自己是同性恋, 如同俄国圣像上的圣人不必非要是俄国人– 你只需要受到崇拜即可.

Meanwhile Winston Churchill could be saidto be an "icon" of British defiance, and Mrs Pankhurst of women'sheroism.

同时, 丘吉尔可谓英式蔑视的“标志人物”, 潘克赫斯特夫人是女性英雄主义的“代表人物”.