双语：为什么“Zzz”表示睡觉呢？

Why Does 'Zzz' Mean Sleep?

In the 1890s, a distinctly American art form emerged: the comic strip. But artists quickly ran into a particular difficulty. Some comic characters' hijinks required a sleeping victim for full comedic potential.

在19世纪90年代，一种极具美国特色的艺术形式出现了：连环漫画。但艺术家们很快就遇到了一个特殊的难题。一些漫画角色的滑稽行为需要有一个正在睡觉的对象，这样才能充分发挥其喜剧潜力。

But how could an artist convince the audience that a character was asleep and blissfully unaware instead of merely lying down?

但是，一位艺术家要如何让观众相信一个角色是在睡觉，并且沉浸在睡梦中毫无察觉，而不只是单纯地躺着呢？

Visually—and, importantly for comics, dynamically—portraying a state in which most people are usually silent and still isn't easy. So, in the end, the answer was to highlight the noisy part of it: snoring.

从视觉上——而且对于连环漫画来说很重要的是，要以动态的方式——描绘出大多数人通常安静且静止的睡觉状态并不容易。所以，最终的解决办法是突出睡觉中发出声响的部分：打鼾。

The Origins of Zzz
“Zzz”的起源

Comic artists tried a variety of representations for snoring before there was an accepted convention.

在有一个被普遍接受的惯例之前，连环漫画家们尝试了各种方式来表现打鼾。

Often, it was some combination of imitative letters, including zzggrrhh, ur-r-r-awk, or z-z-c-r-r-k-k-k-k. But symbols were also used, like stars and musical notes. Some artists even drew a log getting sawed above the person's head in reference to the popular idiom for sleeping. The less imaginative sometimes simply wrote, "snore."

通常，表现方式是一些模仿声音的字母组合，比如“zzggrrhh”、“ur-r-r-awk”或者“z-z-c-r-r-k-k-k-k” 。但也会使用一些符号，比如星星和音符。一些艺术家甚至会在人物的头上画一根正在被锯的圆木，以此来引用关于睡觉的一个流行习语（睡得像死猪一样，类似意思）。缺乏想象力的人有时就简单地写上“打鼾”。

One representation ultimately stuck, though: the letters Zzz. Its first use can be traced back to 1903 in the comic Katzenjammer Kids, created by Rudolph Dirks. In it, the snoring Captain sleeps peacefully in his hammock, emitting z's, while the mischievous Katzenjammer kids cut his beard with a mower and then cut the hammock's strings.

然而，有一种表现方式最终被固定了下来：字母“Zzz”。它的首次使用可以追溯到1903年鲁道夫·迪克斯创作的连环漫画《捣蛋鬼》。在这部漫画中，打鼾的船长在吊床上平静地睡着，发出“z”的声音，而调皮捣蛋的《捣蛋鬼》里的孩子们用割草机割掉了他的胡子，然后又割断了吊床的绳子。

By 1918, we know its place was solidified in the lexicon, having earned its own entry in the American Dialect Society's notes: "z-z-z (sound of whispering or snoring)."

到1918年，我们知道它在词汇表中的地位已经稳固了下来，因为它在美国方言学会的注释中获得了自己的词条：“z-z-z（低语声或打鼾声）”。

Do Other Languages Use Zzz to Represent Sleep?
其他语言也用“Zzz”来表示睡觉吗？

Despite the letter Z being more of a visual representation of sleep than a verbal one, it has influenced language across the globe.

尽管字母“Z”更多地是一种睡觉的视觉表现，而非口头上的表达，但它已经对全球的语言产生了影响。

In the 1940s, the verb zonk (out) emerged to convey suddenly falling into a deep sleep. The phrase catch some Zs is also one of the most obvious results of Zzz's popularization, though it's pronounced a little differently in many English-speaking countries around the world, like the UK, Canada, and Australia. There, a tired person needs to catch some "zeds," and a nap has even come to be called a "zizz."

在20世纪40年代，动词“zonk (out)”出现了，用来表示突然进入深度睡眠状态。短语“catch some Zs”也是“Zzz”普及化最明显的结果之一，不过在世界上许多英语国家，比如英国、加拿大和澳大利亚，这个短语的发音稍有不同。在这些国家，一个疲惫的人需要“catch some 'zeds'（睡一会儿）”，小睡一会儿甚至被称为“zizz”。

Many languages have their own unique noises or representations for snoring aside from Zzz as well.

除了“Zzz”之外，许多语言也有它们自己独特的表示打鼾的声音或表达方式。

Germans, for example, use chrr, and French and Spanish speakers also lean into their r sounds with variations of a sound like roon or just plain rrr. The Japanese, meanwhile, use characters that sound like guu-guu, and in Mandarin it's akin to hu-lu. But even though the regional onomatopoeia may vary, Zzz has made its mark; it's recognized internationally as a symbol for sleep.

例如，德国人用“chrr”来表示打鼾声，讲法语和西班牙语的人也会利用他们的“r”音，发出类似“roon”的变音或者干脆就是“rrr”的声音。与此同时，日本人用听起来像“guu-guu”的字符来表示打鼾声，而在汉语普通话里则类似于“呼噜”。但是，尽管不同地区的拟声词可能各不相同，“Zzz”已经留下了它的印记；它在国际上被公认为是睡觉的一个象征。

翻译：豆包

整理：2025年3月16日于经典龙苑