《老友記》經典口語第17講
【場景再現】
(Chandler辦公室裏有一個really really cute的女職員Nina，但是她卻給Chandler帶來了麻煩……)
Nina: Hi.
Chandler: Hi, Nina. Come on in.
Nina: You wanted to see me?
Chandler: Uh, Yes. Yes. I’ve just been going over your data here, and little thing, you’ve been post-dating your Friday numbers.
Nina: Which is bad, because?
Chandler: Well, it throws my WENUS out of whack.
Nina: Your... excuse me?
Chandler: WENUS. (Coughs) Weekly Estimated Net...
Nina: Oh, Net Usage Statistics, right. Gotcha, gotcha. Won’t happen again. I wouldn’t want to do anything to hurt your... "wenus."
【講解】
out of whack 紊亂，不正常，不對勁
Whack 最早出現在18世紀，用來表示“用力抽打”，可能是根據重擊的聲音仿造而來的詞。
Whack在18世紀晚期成爲小偷們的行話，用來表示“分贓”，後來轉變爲“協定或成交”。到19世紀晚期，whack 的含義進一步發展爲“契約；期望”，這樣，out of whack便可解釋成“脫離契約；出乎意料”，也就是“偏軌；不正常”了。
Whack的形容詞形式whacky後來被寫成wacky，意思是“瘋癲的、發狂的”。另一個詞wacko表示“瘋狂的人”，極有可能是因爲頭部受到了重擊。例如：
This spreadsheet is out-of-whack. Those entries don't make sense and don't belong there.
