Hi, everyone. And welcome back to our new segment【It means what? 】

Yeah~

I'm not convinced.

Okay.

欢迎回来我们的新板块【词源考古研究所】. In this segment, we bring you some of the very interesting origin stories of words and phrases. So the word for today is a word, I'm sure a lot of people have heard of, this is the word ‘candidate’.

Oh. Yes.

Like presidential candidate.

PhD candidate.

都是候选人的这个感觉.

Yeah.

Where does it come from? I have a suspicion before you explain, I have a suspicion. It's from Latin.

Well done. It is from Latin.

That's pretty much the answer to 80 or more percent of the etymology question.

Yes. It comes from a Latin word “candidatus”, which means the white robed one.

White robe 就是白色袍子.

Or white toga.

所以 candidatus就是穿白袍子的人.

Yep.

Now this is actually from Roman history, because Rome was a republic for most of its history. And they would have elections for officials and the people that wanted to get elected. So I shouldn't say people, I should say men.

Because women had absolutely no rights back then.

No. Not that many, no. So men who wanted to be elected to the government had to wear a pure white toga.

嗯, 说到古罗马, 这个toga, 大家看到那些历史片或者说documentary那些纪录片里面演出来的长袍, 对吧? 这么一系, 这么一弄, 看着很飘逸的那个, 那个叫做toga.

Yep.

So these togas were special because they were especially whited, and they were used for when they were campaigning.

Especially whited, you use white as a verb?

You can use it in that way. Yeah.

So you mean normal cloth is not enough. They need to make it especially white.

Yes.

Well. It was to show that they were honest. It was to show that they were kind of pure. They was no scandal. And this is actually where the English word ‘candid’ comes from.

稍等一下, 其实中文我们也有这个意向, 我们总说清清白白. 就是那个白的意向, 就是pureness, innocence, honesty. 所以罗马当时他们就要去竞选政府里面, 它一个民主是个共和国, 所以它所有的这些想要去竞选的这些男性, because again like we said women had no rights, they would have this especially white toga when they were campaigning.

Yes, and as I say, we now say in English candid, it just means that you're completely honest, completely unbiased. It all comes from the same route.

Can I say I'm a candid person?

You are a very candid person.

You make it sound like that's not a very good word. You just explain candid means honest and unbiased?

It's a good word in lot of aspects. But sometimes being completely honest, might not be a good thing.

So you mean like people who tell brutal truth about absolutely everything, home truth about everything.

Yeah, exactly.

就是说那种直愣愣的那种感觉的, 就是从来不会有任何掩饰, 一切都告诉你. Whether it’s good...

It's this sort of people when you say, do I look fat in this dress? they're like, yes. Is that candid?

Yeah. Pretty much, that's been very, very candid. Yes.

It also reminds me of something. You know, there's an old reality show called “Candid camera”?

Oh, yes.

So they put these camera in hidden places. They have hidden cameras, filming people in unexpected situations like the confusion, the sort of comical thing...

Oh, yeah. I've seen that. Yeah.

其实是一个很古早的真人秀, 就是他们用一些隐藏的摄像头, 然后比如说拍下人们不经意的一些就挺傻, 或者说挺奇葩的一些举动.

Now, 安澜, if you got caught on candid camera, doing something intrinsically stupid, and people are laughing at you, obviously at the footage, would you feel offended or would you be like just for laughs?

Well. I've just started doing live streaming, so I'm kind of used to doing stupid things on camera and people probably laughing at me, So.

I'm sure the audience love you, but before we finish, I have one more thing to mention relating to the word candidate. 中国咱们说读博士的人, 我们管他叫博士生, doctoral students. But in English it’s often called doctoral candidate. Why is that?

Well. That's because, just because you're in a PHD program, doesn't necessarily mean you're gonna get a PHD.

Oh, of course. Because it's not something you can just feel secure about. Once you're in the program, you have to work very very hard and there's still a very high failure rate.

Well. Exactly. So your candidate because essentially it's your teachers, the professors that are deciding whether or not you are suitable to be a doctor.

I see, 所以才叫博士学位的这个候选人这种感觉.

Exactly.

I see, I know in our audience, there are quite a number of doctoral candidates. So if you are, leave us a comment, and share with us how you feel about the word candidate, and also leave us a comment if you want to recommend any word, or any interesting origin stories that you want us to talk about. And thank you 安澜 for coming to the show.

Thanks, Lulu. Thanks, everyone.

We'll see you next time.

Bye.