| 词组 | staffer |
| 释义 | staffer Staffer appears to be one of those words about which most language-watchers have no particular opinion until they are asked for one, whereupon they discover within themselves a deep-seated dislike which has previously been lying dormant. Most usage writers have taken no notice of staffer, but when a panelist in Harper 1975 expressed his irritation with it, a poll of the other panelists revealed that 77 percent of them shared his feelings. What is wrong with staffer? First and foremost, it is relatively new. Our earliest evidence of its use is from 1941: • The British legation staffers and Minister Rendel — Time, 24 Mar. 1941 The second strike against it is that it seems to have originated or been popularized in Time magazine, which gives it a certain jargonistic stigma in the eyes of some people. The third strike, related to the second, is that it has always been a word used chiefly—and used frequently—by journalists. A good reason is that journalists, unlike the rest of us, are frequently called upon to report the actions or statements of people who are members of a staff: • ... an LBJ staffer materialized to get Sam into his formal attire —Larry L. King, Harper's, April 1970 • ... in the words of one staffer at last night's session —George S. Wills, Johns Hopkins Mag., Fall 1971 • Many staffers were indignant about parts of the Thurber book —E. B. White, letter 24 May 1973 • At the FCC, staffers are rounding up data —Richard K. Doan, TV Guide, 22 Dec. 1973 • ... I erred in blaming a former Special Prosecutor staffer —William Safire, N.Y. Times, 8 Nov. 1976 • ... staffers already are beginning to study various acquisition prospects —Business Week, 11 May 1981 • ... uses revealing chunks of internal A.E.C. documents ... and leaks from A.E.C. staffers —Edward Zuckerman, N.Y. Times Book Rev., 31 Oct. 1982 Staffer is certainly not an indispensable word, even for journalists. Anyone determined to avoid its use can easily do so by replacing it with such terms as staff member, official, and employee. It is, however, a word that many writers obviously find handy, and there is no reason to suppose that its popularity will diminish soon. |
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