昨日《虎報》的瑪莉‧馬評杜拜世界，文中提到匯控前大班 (taipan) David Eldon。貪吃栗一見 taipan，便想起之前中秋節吃過不停的冰皮月餅。當然，這裡的 taipan，跟月餅生產商並無關連──
taipan (n.) (from Chinese): a foreign person who is in charge of a business in China (舊時對中國洋行老板的稱呼)
查完字典，忽爾想起亦舒《大君》一書，到底大君 (tycoon) 跟大班有何分別？
tycoon (n.): a person who is successful in business or industry and has become rich and powerful (企業界鉅子)
留意 tycoon 一般譯作「大亨」。另據亦舒所言，該字源自日文。
也不只日文有大君，韓國古代也有，是王子的稱號。
回覆刪除[版主回覆12/03/2009 14:06:00]謝謝補充資料 (點解我睇咁多韓劇, 都唔覺有人咁叫啲王子嘅? )
I have watched Hear Me. Will you see it? It is worth seeing!!!
回覆刪除My understanding is that those tycoons, as a group, were even more powerful than the emperor.
回覆刪除[版主回覆12/04/2009 21:24:00]Yes, Teacher. Like the property developers in HK ...
According to Webster dictionary, the word tycoon is from the Japanese word taikun. I think taipan is only used in HK. I don't where else this word is being used.
回覆刪除[版主回覆12/04/2009 21:27:00]堅: I think taipan is rarely used even in HK English newspapers. But the term is popular in Cantonese.
乏言以為「大班」是打工皇帝吧，銀行大班是總經理之類，而不是老闆吧。這想是當東主與管理階層分開時始有的。在外國應是工業革命後，有了「有限公司」之設。在中國，早在明朝時，山西銀號以將經理和東主分開，也許是「大班」的前身。
回覆刪除至於 tycoon 一字，相信不是源於英式英語，英式大抵以 businessman 或 entrepreneur 代之，於七十八十年代漸漸出現於英式英語。乏言一家之語，故妄聽之。
[版主回覆12/14/2009 20:50:00]乏言先生：吖，對呀，洋行老板跟總經理有分別呢！謝謝先生指正！ (果然是不能盡抄字典呢... )