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Merriam-Webster declares 'ism' as word of the year for 2015
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Merriam-Webster has picked a small but powerful suffix as word of the year: ism.
韋氏詞典選取了短小卻富有影響力的單詞后綴“-主義”作為2015年年度詞匯。
But not just any ism. The top isms to earn high traffic spikes and big bumps in lookups on the dictionary company's website in 2015 over the year before are socialism, fascism, racism, feminism, communism, capitalism and terrorism.
但不是任何主義都能當選。據韋氏公司的統計,在過去的一年中,韋氏大詞典官方網站查詢功能耗費流量最多的“主義”有社會主義,法西斯主義,種族主義,女權主義,共產主義,資本主義以及恐怖主義。
"We had a lot on our minds this year," mused Peter Sokolowski, the Springfield, Massachusetts-based company's editor at large, in a recent interview. "It's a serious year. These are words of ideas and practices. We're educating ourselves."
“今年,我們經歷了很多,”馬薩諸塞州斯普林菲爾德(Springfield)韋氏公司的編輯彼得·索科洛夫斯基在近期的采訪中沉思道。“這是沉重的一年。這些詞語背后都涵蓋著相關理念和實踐。我們在選詞的過程中也訓誡了自身。”
Pinpointing reasons why words go on the run at Merriam-Webster is an educated guess. The dictionary company tracks corresponding news events to link lookups to real life. And its researchers also crunch data in a way that filters out common words frequently looked up year after year after year when making their top annual choices.
人們考察韋氏詞典選取年度詞匯的原因仍然只是有根據的猜測。韋氏公司追蹤相關新聞事件,將網站查詢功能與現實生活銜接起來。調查人員在選取年度詞匯時,將人們年復一年頻繁查詢的普通詞匯過濾掉,進而處理相關數據。
Lookups for racism corresponded to release of video in November showing a white police officer shooting a black teenager in Chicago, and the criminal charges that followed. Merriam-Webster also saw a stronger correlation in heavy traffic on its site for that word and "fascist" and flash points in Republican Donald Trump's presidential campaign, including reports on his anti-Islam rhetoric.
人們查詢種族主義時,會搜尋到發布于11月份的一個視頻,內容是芝加哥有個白人警官開槍射殺了一名黑人青年,以及后續的刑事起訴。韋氏公司也發現了該視頻與其網站上“種族主義”、“法西斯主義者”等詞的高點擊率有著密切聯系,該視頻也成為共和黨人唐納德·特朗普參與總統選舉以及他做出反伊斯蘭言論的導火索。
The isms often collide, driving each other in popularity, Sokolowski said.
不同主義間相互碰撞,使各自的名聲越來越大,索科洛夫斯基說道。
"Fascism we more closely associate as the response to various acts of terrorism. After the attacks in Paris and the attacks in Colorado Springs and in San Bernardino, and because of Donald Trump's proposal to ban Muslims, we then see the word fascism spike," he said.
“當我們注意到各種恐怖主義行動時,我們便會進一步聯想到法西斯主義。我們可以從巴黎襲擊事件,科羅拉多斯普林斯(Colorado Springs)以及圣貝納迪諾(San Bernardino)槍擊事件,以及唐納德·特朗普提議取締伊斯蘭教中看到法西斯主義的影子,”他說道。
Lookups of racism were high all year but had two noticeable spikes, one after the South Carolina church shootings and another amid the University of Missouri protests.
人們對種族主義的查詢的熱情全年高昂,同時在下述的兩大事件中也可以看到它的影子,一是南卡羅來納州教堂槍擊案,另一個是密蘇里大學學生的游行抗議活動。
Sokolowski, a lexicographer by training, said one spike in lookups for feminism came in April and corresponded with reports on an Ohio middle school student who wore a T-shirt with the word printed on it in a school photo, only to have it digitally blacked out by school administrators. The school later apologized.
索科洛夫斯基是一名詞典編篡家,他說,人們可以從今年4月發生的事情以及相關報導中發現女權主義的影子,俄亥俄州一名中學學生身穿印有“女權主義”的T恤出現在學校的宣傳照上,稍后人們發現“女權主義”被學校管理人員用技術方式抹掉了。隨后,學校對此表示了道歉。
Reports on Caitlyn Jenner, Amy Schumer and Hillary Clinton all included discussion of feminism, as did reviews of the film "Mad Max: Fury Road" and chatter about previews of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."
關于凱特琳·詹納,艾米·舒默以及希拉里·克林頓的所有報導都涵蓋有女權主義的討論,人們對電影《瘋狂的麥克斯:狂暴之路》的評論,以及對《星球大戰:原力喚醒》預告的討論也是如此。
In addition, Emma Watson's 2014 UN speech made the news again twice this year; first for inspiring Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai to call herself a feminist in a viral video, and again when it was revealed that Watson was asked not to use the word at all in the speech, Sokolowski noted.
另外,艾瑪·沃特森2014年聯合國的演講在今年制造了有關女權主義的兩大新聞,第一條是在一個病毒視頻中鼓勵諾貝爾和平獎獲得者馬拉拉·尤沙夫賽自稱為女權主義者,第二條新聞則是有人揭露沃特森被要求在演講時不可使用女權主義這個詞語,索科洛夫斯基說道。
The word socialism has Bernie Sanders to thank for its popularity.
“社會主義”這個詞的流行要感謝伯尼·桑德斯。
"The big spikes have been associated with the fact that we have a presidential candidate who identifies as a Democratic Socialist," Sokolowski said. "We saw that even though socialism was in the Top 10 of the most looked-up words in the whole history of the site, it increased in a spike beginning in late July when Bernie Sanders had a multicity rally that was organized through social media and attracted about 100,000 people in 3,000 communities or more around the country."
“我們有個被視為民主主義者的總統候選人,'社會主義'這個詞的潛在影響與此密切相關,”索科洛夫斯基說道。“我們注意到,'社會主義'即使是在韋氏網站的整個查詢史中,也能入選十大高查詢頻率詞匯,而在7月底,伯尼·桑德斯通過社交媒體組織開展的多城市集會,吸引了全國超過3000個社區10萬人參加,在這之后,'社會主義'提高了其影響力。"
In October, lookups for socialism spiked again during the first Democratic debate featuring Sanders and Clinton.
10月,自桑德斯和克林頓第一場民主討論系列活動展開以來,“社會主義”再次上了熱搜榜。
John Morse, president and publisher of Merriam-Webster, said socialism led the ism charge after a strong showing in 2012, but the company decided to go with the broader suffix instead as word of the year "because it was hard not see a bigger story staring us in the face, which was the profusion of ism words all over the most frequently looked-up list."
韋氏公司的董事長、出版商約翰·莫爾斯說,“社會主義”在2012年的一番強勁展示后引起了人們對“主義”的關注,但是公司決定使用更具廣泛意義的后綴而不是這個詞作為年度詞匯,“因為很難不去注意我們手中的數據,在單詞查詢榜上有許許多多的以‘主義’為后綴的詞語。”
Other ism words on the move at Merriam-Webster.com this year were professionalism, masochism, federalism, pragmatism, existentialism, hedonism and Marxism.
今年,韋氏大詞典官方網站上的其他“主義”詞匯有專業主義,受虐主義,聯邦主義,實用主義,存在主義,英雄主義以及馬克思主義。
Other words that sent people to the site in high numbers include marriage, hypocrite, respect, inspiration and minion. The company does not release raw numbers of lookups.
其他的能將網友送進這個網址,出現次數較多的詞匯有婚姻,偽君子,尊敬,激勵和仆從。韋氏公司并沒有公布原始搜索數據。
"Inspiration still kind of baffles us," Morse said. "I can't really tell you what it is in the world of 2015 that is so much different from '14 that inspiration has moved up."
“我們對‘激勵’這個詞仍然感到困惑,”莫爾斯說,“我無法確切地告訴你‘激勵’這個詞查詢頻率上升的原因,也無法說明2015年這個的含義為何與14年的大不相同。”
The company began picking a word of the year in 2003. It went with "culture" in 2014.
韋氏公司于2013年開始選取年度詞匯。2014年的年度詞匯是“文化”。
This year's word of the year at Dictionary.com is identity. The folks at Oxford Dictionaries went with a pictograph, an emoji called the "Face with Tears of Joy."
《字典在線》的2015年年度詞匯是“身份認同”。《牛津字典》的年度詞匯則是一個表情符號——“笑哭了”。
英文來源:美聯社
譯者:廖林敏
審校&編輯:丹妮
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