| 词组 | bust |
| 释义 | bust Bust is a verb that originated in an \\\\r\\\\-less pronunciation of burst apparently common in many dialect areas in the 19th century and earlier. Evans 1962 comments that the pronunciation is more old-fashioned than vulgar. Bust, however, in the 19th century moved from being a variant or dialectal pronunciation to become a separate verb, its separateness emphasized by the fact that its past and past participle is regularly busted (less often bust) while that of burst is burst (and rarely now bursted). The past and past participle bust appears to be more common at present in British English than it is in American. Bust is now established as a separate verb, with many senses in which burst (or break) cannot be substituted. So the first thing you have to do is to disregard the oversimplification prevalent in school grammars (such as Warriner 1982) and college handbooks (such as Bell & Cohn 1980, McMahan & Day 1980) claiming bust to be wrong for burst or break, or busted wrong for broke. These books are expressing opinion that is well over a half century old and that has no relevance to current 20th-century usage—indeed, it was scarcely relevant to current usage 50 years ago. Back in 1942 John R. Bethel, then in charge of Mer-riam editorial work, put a note in our files pointing out that bust was changing its status "under our noses" from Slang, Dial., and Inelegant (the labels of Webster's Second) to Colloq. and in some contexts Standard. The note enjoined future editors to collect as much evidence as possible so as to be up-to-date on the status of the word. This we have done—we have many citations. Examination of them would show you that most of what you read in the usage books is pure and simple malar-key. Look at the following examples and make up your own mind: • ... this extraordinary piston-engined pusher was primarily for busting tanks with its 75 mm gun —Bill Gunston, Attack Aircraft of the West, 1974 • In winter they blame him when hungry elk and deer are busting their fences and devouring their haystacks —Robert C. Wurmstedt, Time, 5 Nov. 1984 • Even a man couldn't have bust it down —John Fowles, The Collector, 1963 • ... police officers searching for a gasoline bomb factory busted their way with sledgehammers into 11 houses —N. Y. Times, 19 July 1981 • Courts enjoined them, police busted their heads — E. L. Doctorow, Ragtime, 1975 • James boxes—or did, until his jaw was busted — New Yorker, 17 Oct. 1983 • Naturally, all hell busted loose again. The GSA quickly tore down the huts —Jim Fain, Atlanta J our.-Constitution, 23 Sept. 1984 • ... Grant, a convinced Union partisan, joined the 21st Illinois Regiment to replace a colonel busted for overdrinking —Alden Whitman, Atlanta J our.-Constitution, 16 Sept. 1984 • ... misfields it and busts his silly old ankle again — Alan Coren, The Times (London), 9 Jan. 1974 • ... had thrown away career and respectability to bust her client out of prison and vanish with him into the hills of eastern Tennessee —Joyce Wadler, People, 23 Apr. 1984 The foregoing examples are all for senses that bust shares with either break or burst; they come from recent fiction, nonfiction, newspapers, and magazines. They show bust established as standard in what some handbooks call General English. We have no evidence that bust has reached the highest levels of formality—no examples from disquisitions upon ethics, linguistics, genetics, philosophy, or theology, for instance, and no examples from the prose of the bureaucrat. You may wonder if the establishment of bust in this sort of publication is recent. The answer is no. Although there may be a wider spectrum of use now, the same usages can be found from a quarter century or so earlier: • We approach the scullery window. He busts in. I raise the alarm —P. G. Wodehouse, Joy in the Morning, 1946 • ... unable to bust the tradition —Newsweek, 5 July 1948 • We have busted out in an epidemic of industrialization —James Street, Holiday, October 1954 • ... were busting out all over with their own ideas — Investor's Reader, 9 Feb. 1955 • ... but suddenly the Nazis bust loose and the captain's cowardice is revealed —John McCarten, New Yorker, 29 Sept. 1956 • ... feeling that an orchestra would suddenly appear and bust loose with Cole Porter —Theatre Arts, April 1957 In addition, there are other uses in which bust is the verb of choice: • Federal labor law would have been declared, once again, superior to harsh union-busting state laws — T. R. B., New Republic, 17 Aug. 1953 • The best headline is no good if it busts —Leslie Sellers, The Simple Subs Book, 1968 • The Northern Securities trust was busted, and Morgan could do nothing but writhe —Business Week, 20 Apr. 1981 • ... full of all kinds of budget-busting measures — David A. Stockman, quoted in Atlantic, December 1981 The use of bust to mean "arrest, raid" is still slangy but has begun moving in more respectable circles of late. It seems to have originated in the jargon of police and those the police arrest. • Jerry and I had just busted (arrested) two guys inside for pushing heroin —a police officer named Spinosa, quoted in Headquarters Detective, 12 Sept. 1956 • ... first tipping off the Drug Squad with an anonymous call. They busted him just as he was setting off —Alexander Frater, Punch, 29 May 1974 • ... my house in Culloden Rd, Eastwood, was busted —Mark Butler, in Coast to Coast: Australian Stories 1973 • There is simply no legal basis for busting a bailed rape suspect who had fooled a judge —Alan M. Der-showitz, TV Guide, 31 May 1985 Bust is also the usual verb in a large number of phrases beginning bust my (or your or our, etc.) , some of which are rather vulgar and others not. Here are examples of some of the latter variety: • Every time I hear of a critic who is hardly getting enough to eat I laugh until I bust my galluses — Theodore Dreiser, quoted in The Intimate Notebooks of George Jean Nathan, 1932 • We are busting our guts to get this war settled — Major General Henry I. Hodes, quoted in Newsweek, 12 Nov. 1951 • Don't bust a gut to wash out the teapot every time you use it —Jonathan Sale, Punch, 19 Aug. 1975 • We made every customer happy. But we had to bust our tails to do it —Gary P. Spoleta, quoted in N. Y. Times, 8 June 1984 These phrases have a distinctly informal flavor. There is no point in basing your use of bust on backward-looking opinions. Bust has been gaining in respectability for a half century and in some contexts is absolutely the right word to use. See also burst. |
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