倫敦今天（7月27日）迎來(lái)奧運(yùn)會(huì)倒計(jì)時(shí)一周年，今天我們就來(lái)看看Olympic這個(gè)詞的起源和用法吧。

England this week celebrated the start of the one-year countdown to the 2012 Olympics, which will be held in London. Like the Beijing Olympics in 2008, thousands of athletes from more than 200 countries are expected to compete.

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Olympics is a term that originated in Olympia, Greece, which also is the home of Mount Olympus. The first Olympic Games, dating back to at least 776 BC, featured naked athletes. Today, they keep their clothes on.

Here's how the term Olympic has evolved to mean something different in English. When cities build swimming pools that meet official Olympics regulations for size, they called them Olympic-size pools. Now that phrase is used to describe almost anything that is very big. For example: “I hope you have enough food, because he's got an Olympic-size appetite.” Sometimes English speakers will even drop the “size” part of the phrase and just say: “That party was Olympic.”

The term also is used as a title for contests that have nothing to do with sports. Many US cities hold informal “beer Olympics,” and one hamburger restaurant in Texas held a “burger Olympics.” That must give the real Olympics officials “Olympic-size headaches.”

“奧林匹克”（Olympics）一詞起源于古希臘的“奧林匹亞”( Olympia)，即“諸神之所”奧林匹斯山的所在地。第一屆奧運(yùn)會(huì)可以追溯至公元前776年，那時(shí)的運(yùn)動(dòng)員們都裸體參賽。

如今，Olymipic又有了其它的意思。堪比奧運(yùn)會(huì)比賽標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的游泳池就是Olympic-size pools。Olympic-size現(xiàn)在可以用來(lái)描述任何事物非常之“大”。比如，“但愿你的食物足夠多，因?yàn)樗墒莻€(gè)大胃王（Olympic-size appetite）”。有時(shí)候，人們干脆把size也省略掉，比如，“那個(gè)派對(duì)規(guī)模真大。（That party was Olympic.）”

Olympics也可以用來(lái)指體育以外的競(jìng)賽，比如“啤酒奧運(yùn)會(huì)”（beer Olympics）、“漢堡奧運(yùn)會(huì)”（burger Olympics）等等。這些“冒牌奧運(yùn)會(huì)”真讓正牌奧運(yùn)會(huì)的官員們“大大地頭疼”啊（Olympic-size headaches）。

（中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津 實(shí)習(xí)生高美 編輯：Julie）

About the broadcaster:

Renee Haines is an editor and broadcaster at China Daily. Renee has more than 15 years of experience as a newspaper editor, radio station anchor and news director, news-wire service reporter and bureau chief, magazine writer, book editor and website consultant. She came to China from the United States.