Hi, everyone. And welcome back to the segment called It Means What?

Yoho~

Now that's new. Hi, 安澜.

Hi, Lulu, hi, everyone.

欢迎大家回来【词源考古研究所】. So in this segment, we're going to explore the interesting origin of words and phrases. 安澜, actually, can I propose the word or the phrase for today?

Yeah, why not?

Because I always ask you what do we have for today? There's one thing and I'm sure a lot of our audience would share my confusion, which is, you know that a lot of times you watch like especially American TV show, you have these kids or really immature adults when they jump into the seat next to the driver they would say “I call shotgun”. 不知道大家在美剧里面有没有看过, 我不知道英国人会不会这么说.

We understand it, but we don't say anything.

It’s an American thing. 对, 看美剧的时候, 就有很多小朋友或者那种心智不太成熟的成年人, 他们会跳到副驾的位置, 然后就说 I call shotgun, 你看到底下的字幕翻译一般都是说 “我抢了副驾的位置, 我抢了”。

I always wondered sitting next to the driver, what does that have to do with shotgun which is a weapon.

Yes. Ride shotgun or sit up front is sitting in the seat next to the driver. It actually comes from the Wild West.

The Wild West, is it like the all of those western movies? Exactly.

When you had cowboys and America was expanding west.

就是美国西部那种西部片, 也是like you draw your gun and shoot at each other, cowboys, that sort of thing.

The whole idea that it was a lawless environment. There are not many people, there was lots of fights, cowboys, bandits.

So back then apparently the person who sat next to the driver in a stagecoach carried a shotgun.

Hang on, what is the stagecoach?

A stagecoach is a horse carriage, but it's almost like public transport, so it goes a set route. It's normally covered and it is used for post and also for carrying passengers.

It's kind of like the horse drawn version of a bus.

Just the smaller version of it.

Mini bus. A horse drawn version of minibus. Exactly.

So it's called a stagecoach because it used to travel different stages of the journey.

公共马车那种感觉.

So the person who sat next to the driver carried a shotgun. So he could shoot anyone who tried to rob the coach.

So it’s kind of like a bodyguard.

Almost like a bodyguard, because also there were attacks from bandits. They were also attacks from wild animals.

If we believe in any of these Wild West movies, it's really like you said, it was a lawless place.

Everyone was shooting each other really wild. So that's why they say ride shotgun because the person who sat next to the driver had to carry a shotgun to protect the driver.

You know what this reminds me of, when we were doing China Story, the course, you remember when we were talking about swordsman, talking about Chinese martial arts, say these kung fu masters, they would become like armed escorts.

Yeah, it's the same idea.

Exactly the same idea有点.

像我们押镖的那种人一样.

And then they have this shotgun and they were just protecting the coach.

Because you have to think back then, there were... shotguns were probably the most common weapon because they were very powerful. And hence the expression, for example, shotgun wedding.

Yes, shotgun wedding, this is a very interesting one. Shotgun wedding is when the guy got the girl pregnant sort of before the wedding and then the bride's dad would force the men by holding him at gunpoint with a shotgun and then forced him to marry his daughter.

Exactly. That's where the image comes from. So that during the church service, the father of the bride would actually carry a shotgun so that if the man tried to run away, he could shoot him.

So riding shotgun, shotgun wedding, all from the use of shotgun and Wild West really.

Exactly.

You also mentioned the word bandit does that word just mean robbers like criminals?

Yeah.

Bandit is probably a little bit kind of antiquated, is a little bit old fashion. Because when we say bandit, we think of people like, for example, Robin Hood. So we think about adventurers who would also go round stealing money and property.

Is it kind of like水浒传those people?

Kinda.

I see.

Well, one of the translations is Bandits Of the Marsh.

I see.

Or Outlaws of the Marsh.

Interesting, but you said it's antiquated, so it's kind of old.

Yeah, we wouldn't say I was robbed by a bandit yesterday, it makes you sound like you come from the 18th century.

我觉得有点土匪那个意思, 中文里面可能土匪就比较是那个感觉。

So before we finish today's episode I am going to ask 安澜, I know you don't drive, when you get in someone else's car, do you call shotgun?

Generally I do, I normally ride shotgun, particularly in the UK because I'm the tallest person in the family, so they let me sit in front because I got a little bit more...

legroom.

You said to ride shotgun so you can call shotgun which means you literally call out I call shotgun, so I get the seat.

I get the seat next to the driver which generally is the more comfortable seat.

Or you can just say I ride shotgun

yes.

I see, so those of you who are listening to the show if you're not driving, would you ride shotgun or even call shotgun? Leave us comment in the comment section.

And if you have any special request for any particular word or phrase you want us to talk about, let us know. And thank you, 安澜for coming to the show. So until next time, we'll see you next time. Bye bye.