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06/09/2015
講鉛禍，中英有別
水含鉛， 係lead in water， 但不可以講leaded water：文法上確係得，但感情上、語文認知上就是不大對頭。
為什麼呢？ 因為舊時含鉛汽油leadedpetrol 一度號稱可以改善汽車性能，直至1980 年代仍然流行。儘管今日都崇尚無鉛汽油unleaded petrol 了，但為免上世紀末遺留下來的印象，leaded water？一個不好令人誤會水含鉛好似係樁好事，於是大家都避而不講。
另一說法，係tainted water，有雜質、受污染contaminated 的水。可記得數年前大陸的毒奶粉醜聞？ 其時國際傳媒也少說poisonous ，用的字眼，一樣多是taintedmilk powder / infant formula。
Tainted 常用於入肚子的東西， tainted food，過了期或總之是壞了的食物。當然也可套諸其他事物，由錢銀tainted money，到聲譽tainted reputation， 至愛情taintedlove 都得，視乎包含的不如意或髒的成分是什麼。例：
● The top official’s reputation was tainted by the sex scandal. 高官的聲譽，受那樁性醜聞影響。
一句Hongkongers demand no more tainted water，香港人要求乾淨水。這句話看來沒有問題，但若用作口號，為了技術上百分百準確——廁所水坑渠水都係水，肯定都tainted——在說的是家居水龍頭的水，於是這句話最好加個tap 字，意思就一定無誤了。
而鉛「禍」， 英文通常也不會用上disaster，只是講scare、panic，同樣都係恐慌，panic 的程度又比scare 重許多。
● A lead-in-water scare has hit Hong Kong.鉛水恐慌襲港。
● The tainted water issue has not quite reached panic level. 鉛水議題，或未至公眾驚惶失措層次。
這次風波，中文有得玩同音字，像「鉛」兇、「鉛」頭等，英文在這一筆，沒有對等單位，只能有話直說：
元兇/鉛兇：prime culprit。中英文一樣，要追究的，不一定是人，可以是行為或架構。
● Government incompetence is probably the prime culprit of the tainted water fiasco. 政府的無能， 或就是鉛禍的元兇。
● Water mining is now considered a prime culprit for rising sea levels. 開採地下水，今日已給視為令海平面升高的一個元兇。
源頭/鉛頭：the source。追源溯本，track something back to its origin, its source。
● We must track the source(s) of lead in our tap water. 我們必須找出水喉水含鉛的源頭。
● Reduce waste at source. 這句話，不就是「源頭減廢」。