每日一词学英语(46): not half

大象会跑吗？有人说，Elephants cannot lift all four feet simultaneously. So no, elephants can't run, but they can't half walk fast. 大象不会跑，但走得可不慢哩。

“Not half”在Wiktionary中解释为：(British, slang) Greatly; to a considerable extent。

Wiktionary中还有个词条“not half bad”: (not comparable) (idiomatic) pretty good; okay; decent.
*It was my first attempt at cooking, but I tried it and it was not half bad.
第一次做饭，可我尽力去做了，结果还不赖。

以下是Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary中的解释：

not half: (BrE, informal) used to emphasize a statement or an opinion.
*It wasn’t half good (= it was very good). 那可不是一般的好。
*‘Was she annoyed?’ ‘Not half!’ (= she was extremely annoyed).
“她生气了？”“不止！”

not half such a: not nearly. 远非。
*He is not half such a fool as they think.
他远非别人想的那么傻。

not half bad: (informal) (used to show surprise) not bad at all; good.
*It really isn’t half bad, is it?
可真不赖啊，是吧？

对比一下：it isn't half good和it isn't half bad意思差不多，而不是字面上的意思相反。中文里“我好高兴”和“我好不高兴”都表示“我很高兴”，与这倒是有点异曲同工。

抛砖引玉，关于这个词的用法和体会还可以写很多……