Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook on Thursday became the most prominent American corporate leader to come out as gay, saying he was trading his closely guarded privacy for the chance to help move civil rights forward.

蘋果CEO提姆·庫克周四宣布出柜，并表示他在用自己小心守護的隱私換取民權進步的機會，他也由此成為出柜的美國公司首腦中最有影響力的一位。

我們都知道“出柜”一詞來自于英文表達come out of the closet，但是，研究發現，come out一詞最早由同性戀團體使用時，它的意思跟現在并不相同。

"Coming out" has long been used in the gay community, but it first meant something different than it does now. "A gay man's coming out originally referred to his being formally presented to the largest collective manifestation of prewar gay society, the enormous drag balls that were patterned on the debutante and masquerade balls of the dominant culture and were regularly held in New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Baltimore, and other cities." The phrase "coming out" did not refer to coming out of hiding, but to joining into a society of peers. The phrase was borrowed from the world of debutante balls, where young women "came out" in being officially introduced to society.

“Coming out”這個表達一直在同性戀群體使用，但這個詞的最初的意思跟現在的用法卻有不同。“一個男同出柜一開始指的是正式參加戰前男同團體舉辦的盛大集會。這些集會規模龐大，可與主流社會舉辦的年輕上流女子聚會和化妝舞會相媲美，通常在紐約、芝加哥、新奧爾良、巴爾的摩以及其他城市舉行。” “coming out”一詞并不是指不再躲避，而是加入到自己的同伴之中。這個詞是從上流女子舞會里借用過來的，當時年輕女子正式加入社交圈都稱作“come out”。

There were other metaphors for the act of hiding or revealing homosexuality. Gay people could "wear a mask" or "take off the mask." A man could "wear his hair up" or "let his hair down," or "drop hairpins" that would only be recognized by other gay men.

另外還有一些其他表示隱藏或公開同性取向的隱喻詞。同性戀者可以“帶上面具”或者“脫下面具”。一個人可以“挽起頭發”或者“放下頭發”，又或者“脫下發夾”，這個動作只有其他男同看得出。

It is unclear exactly when gay people started using the closet metaphor, but "it may have been used initially because many men who remained 'covert' thought of their homosexuality as a sort of 'skeleton in the closet.'" It may also have come from outsiders who viewed it that way. It seems that "coming out of the closet" was born as a mixture of two metaphors: a debutante proudly stepping into the arms of a community and a shocking secret being kept in hiding. Now the community is the wider community, and the secret is no longer shocking."Coming out" is a useful phrase, but it need not imply a closet.

男同使用“出柜”一詞作隱喻的確切時間并清楚，不過“它最初開始使用時，是因為很多男士對他們的同性戀身份仍然保持著‘隱密'思想，認為這像是“見不得光的秘密”。它也可能是外面的人這樣想像的。看起來“出柜”的出現是兩個隱喻詞的匯合：公開參加同一群體的社交活動，以及一個隱藏著的驚人秘密。現在的同性戀群體更加壯大，而這個秘密已不再讓人驚奇了。“出柜”是一個有用的說法，不過并不暗指隱秘。

（中國日報網英語點津 Helen）