name calling

"name calling"で”悪口”や”中傷”という意味になります。


Last week McCain and Bush got in a little spat, which ended up being about who had gone negative. Bush put out an ad saying McCain's proposal to cut certain corporate deductions --like for seats at sporting events -- would amount to a $40 billion tax increase. McCain denied it was an increase at all and accused Bush of breaking their long-standing pledge not to engage in negative campaigning. Then he launched an ad saying Bush had gone negative. Bush complained that McCain was engaging in "name calling." Are these guys running for social chair? What happened to that tough guy in the flight suit in all those McCain posters?
(Time. Don't Worry, Be Angry. 2000.)


ところで、動詞"call"にも、”（人のことを）非難する、咎める”という意味があります。少し大きな英和辞典で、7～8番目くらいに出てきます。この場合、call <人> on <物事>～という構成をとるようです。


When Susan Rapaport and her husband split up four years ago, her son, Joseph, who was 5 at the time, would get excessively upset whenever anyone reprimanded him. " So anytime I had to call him on something, I made sure to add, " I want you with me always, and I'm never going to leave you, "' says the Chevy Chase, Maryland, mother of three.
(Mary Garner Ganske. When parents divorce. Parenting. 2002)


さらに、名詞”name”にも”悪口、雑言”という意味があります。この場合、通常複数形（”names”）で現れるようです。


One night in our tiny Boston apartment after a friend had gone home after a lovely dinner, my husband opened another bottle of wine. He took a swig, threw me to the floor, began to kick and spit on me and call me names. I somehow got out of our apartment and began running through the streets of Beacon Hill, not knowing where I was going. It was 1975; he was running after me, yelling and screaming horrible names in the dark Saturday night in that sedate neighborhood.
(Denver Post. 2002)