6/08/2008

英汉大词典 【补】"Bagman"

The Colour of Law 里有这样一段描写:
Clark McCall had organized a "Minority Night" fraternity party where everyone dressed up as their favorite minority; Clark had gone in blackface as a pimp. Mack had bought off the newspaper to keep the story quiet. Dan Ford had been the bagman.
从上下文看,这个bagman的意思是“行贿的人”或者“中间人”。

Webster网络字典查得词义:
bagman:
a person who on behalf of another collects or distributes illicitly gained money; broadly : an intermediary in an illicit or unethical transaction

英汉大词典》第二版第130页的解释是:4. <美俚>代人收取贿金(或赃款)的人。

正好缺了Webster中“广义”的解释,按照《英汉大词典》的解释就无法理解小说原文了。提到的小说是近年出版的,说明这个“中间人”的义项还是很鲜活的,应当在词典中补进去。

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