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A jobsworth is someone who follows the rules of their job too exactly, with no imagination and little kindness — a ticket inspector who will not let you through for the sake of one missing stamp, a clerk who says no because the form is the wrong colour. It is British, informal, and never a compliment. The name comes from the old line “It’s more than my job’s worth,” meaning “If I say yes, I might lose my job,” so they hide behind the rule to protect themselves. You hear it about security guards, council desks, and anyone with a little power and a book of rules. Though actually, some people called jobsworths are just scared, not mean — but the word still stings. Americans hardly use it.
死守規定、不肯通融的人（英式口語、帶貶義；常指怕丟飯碗所以照章辦事的職員）
組成A compound of job + -s- + worth, from the phrase “It’s more than me job’s worth” / “my job’s worth,” said when a functionary refuses a request. The word was popularized by Jeremy Taylor’s 1973 song “Jobsworth” and by the BBC series That’s Life! (1973–1994), which gave a “Jobsworth of the Week” award.
同家族的字
- jobfrom the phrase “my job’s worth” — protecting the job by sticking to the rule
原始詞典資料1 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
jobsworthnoun/ˈd͡ʒɒbzwɜːθ/
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derogatoryinformalA person who upholds trivial rules unnecessarily and obstructively in order to exercise their (typically minor) authority.
- The usual council jobsworths came down to tell them to stop playing football.
- For many people, however, the stress of not having the correct ticket for a train or bus journey can lead to a particularly uncomfortable feeling … fear that they might encounter a jobsworth. […] Someone who has been caught out by a jobsworth, will probably accuse them of being an embittered, mean-spirited inadequate who are using their status to give themselves faux importance, justifying their actions by their twin mantras of "Rules is rules" and, inevitably, "It's more than my job's worth."
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。