| 释义 |
Wabenzi|wɑːˈbɛnzɪ|
Also Wabenze, Wa-Benzi.
[Invented to resemble the name of an African people (viz. Watusi, etc.), with inserted (Mercedes-)Benz: see def.]
In Africa, ‘the Mercedes-Benz tribe’: used joc. to designate those Black politicians, businessmen, and others whose success is characterized by their ownership or use of a Mercedes-Benz car.
1967Economist 8 Apr. 112/1 Africa is rapidly earning itself the reputation of the world's biggest joke..the ‘Wabenze’, the new but already well-known African people whose tribal mark is a ministership and a Mercedes. 1972J. Biggs-Davison Africa—Hope Deferred x. 92 The sweeteners of deference and the shining, pennanted cars that have given their name to such new and privileged tribes as the ‘Wa-Benzi’. 1978S. Naipaul North of South i. i. 42 ‘Wabenzi’ is the pleasantly jocular term used to describe the nouveau-riche black middle-class... They signal their status by the acquisition..of a Mercedes Benz. Hence, the Wabenzi—the Benz tribe. 1980Times 17 July 11/1 The Wa-Benzi are the new tribe of Mercedes-Benz mounted black bureaucrats and politicos. |