Receipts “收据”变成了 proof “证据”

 

Receipt这个词来源于中世纪英语，指的是收到一定量的某物或是收到某物的行为。16世纪晚期，receipt也用于表示手写或打印的声明，表示已为某物付款——也就是我们购物时收到的塞满钱包的单据。但是proof或evidence（证据）是如何与Comey关联起来的？

 

这个问题的答案可以追溯到2002年对Whitney Houston（惠特尼•休斯顿）的一个采访。当记者Diane Sawyer质疑这位歌手的用药，给Houston展示了一份新闻文章说：“这里说你药物成瘾花费了730,000美元，这是一个头条新闻。”作为回应，Houston说：“No way. No way. I want to see the receipts. From the drug dealer that I bought $730,000 worth of drugs from. I want to see the receipts.”（不可能，不可能。我想要看到这些收据。我想看到我花了730,000美元买药的经销商那里的收据。我想看到这些收据。）

 

从上面的表述可以看出，一开始用于十分确信对方没有坚实证据的情况下——他们就要求查看发票，像Houston那样——因为他们知道没有这种证据存在。如今receipt因存在或缺失都会变得引人注目，尤其是用于证明有名有权的人撒谎或表现地不诚实的时候。在例如tumblr这样的网站上，receipt可以代指冒犯或辱骂言辞的截图——在作恶者删除他们的愚蠢言辞之前截下来的。

 

英语原文如下：

On the radar: receipts

“Comey has the receipts!”

This phrase has been gleefully proclaimed across social media, in response to the news that the former FBI Director James Comey has a memo proving that President Trump asked him to end the investigation into Michael Flynn. But how and when did ‘receipts’ come to mean ‘proof’?

The word ‘receipt’ dates from Middle English, referring to an amount of something received or the act of receiving something. By the late 16th century it had also come to mean a written or printed statement acknowledging that something has been paid for – the familiar paper receipts that fill our wallets when we’ve been shopping. But what is the connection to ‘proof’ or ‘evidence’ that is being referred to with Comey?

The answer lies in a 2002 interview with Whitney Houston. The journalist Diane Sawyer challenged the singer about her drug use, showing Houston a newspaper article and stating “This says $730,000 drug habit. This is a headline.” In response, Houston said: “No way. No way. I want to see the receipts. From the drug dealer that I bought $730,000 worth of drugs from. I want to see the receipts.”

This exchange quickly became legendary, with the phrase “I want to see the receipts” adopted into popular use to mean “I want to see the proof”. The phrase was further popularized with the emergence of ‘receipt’ memes, many of which used images from the original Houston interview, and in time different phrases emerged with the catchy “show me the receipts” proving the most popular.

Initially, the term was used when the speaker was fairly confident that there was no solid evidence: they asked to see receipts precisely because – like Whitney Houston – they knew no such proof existed. Nowadays, ‘receipts’ are just as likely to be noted for their presence as their absence, particularly when evidence has emerged to prove that someone famous or powerful has lied or acted dishonestly. On websites such as tumblr ‘receipts’ came to refer to screenshots of abusive or offensive comments – grabbed and preserved before the perpetrators can delete their unwise words.

With the Comey incident, ‘receipts’ has taken its step into the mainstream, with the term escaping the confines of social media, and finding its place in articles by the likes of GQ and the New York Magazine. Will it establish itself enough to earn a place in the dictionary? We’ll have to wait and see – but at least we’ve got the receipts to prove its history.