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The Guardian view on ‘words of the year’: lexical snapshots of a moment in time
《卫报》对“年度词汇”的看法：某一时刻的词汇快照
From ‘selfie’ to ‘slop’, internet culture is changing our language
从“自拍”到“slop”，网络文化正在改变我们的语言
Fri 29 Nov 2024 18.25 GMT
2024 年 11 月 29 日星期五 18.25 GMT
It started with “chav” and has included “carbon footprint”, “omnishambles” and “selfie”. The Oxford word of the year campaign celebrates 20 years of selecting the word – or sometimes two words – that in some way sums up the moment. This year’s winner, decided by public vote, will be announced on Monday.
我最早的单词是“ chav ”，后来又加入了“碳足迹”、“ omnishambles ”和“自拍”。牛津年度词汇评选活动庆祝了 20 年来评选出一个或两个词来概括当下的词汇。今年的获胜者将由公众投票决定，将于周一公布。
All six contenders on the shortlist have one thing in common – the internet. The words either refer to anxieties about online phenomena or behaviour (“slop”, meaning AI-generated content, and “brain rot” caused by consuming too much “slop” and other material); or they have been repurposed or popularised by social media (old-fashioned words such as “demure” and “lore”, and “romantasy” – a blend of romance and fantasy beloved by BookTokkers). Even “dynamic pricing” relates to Ticketmaster’s skyrocketing costs of Oasis reunion tickets for fans in virtual queues.
入围的六位候选人都有一个共同点——互联网。这些词语要么指对网络现象或行为的担忧（“slop”，意为人工智能生成的内容，以及因消费过多“slop”和其他材料而导致的“脑腐烂”）；要么被社交媒体重新利用或推广（老式词语，如“ demure ”和“lore”，以及“ romantasy ”——BookTokkers 钟爱的浪漫与幻想的混合词）。甚至“动态定价”也与 Ticketmaster 为虚拟排队的粉丝提供的 Oasis 重聚门票价格暴涨有关。
The list overlooks how eventful the year was in real life (IRL), with UK and US elections providing plenty of contenders including “cat lady”, “supermajority” and “weird”, even if “Maga” and “Trumpism” feel a bit old. Oxford University Press (OUP) has often reflected global events: “post-truth” followed Donald Trump’s 2016 win, “climate emergency” was chosen in 2019, and the upheavals in 2020 led to a report called Words of an Unprecedented Year. “Vax” took the spotlight in 2021.
该榜单忽略了这一年在现实生活中发生的多事之秋，英国和美国大选提供了大量竞争者，包括“猫女”、“绝对多数”和“怪异”，尽管“Maga”和“特朗普主义”感觉有点过时。牛津大学出版社 (OUP) 经常反映全球事件：“后真相”在唐纳德·特朗普 (Donald Trump) 2016 年获胜后出现，2019 年选择了“气候紧急情况”，2020 年的动荡导致了一份名为《前所未有的一年的词汇》的报告。“疫苗”在 2021 年成为焦点。
From Shakespeare to JK Rowling, writers have been supplying new words for centuries. It is no surprise that the internet is taking over: new technology requires new words and new ways of talking about how we interact with it. The invention of the telephone is often credited with the usage of “hello” and “hi”. The words of the last 20 years that have fared best are nouns such as “podcast” (a compound of iPod and “broadcast”) and “selfie”, as opposed to those describing social trends such as “chav” or “squeezed middle”, which now seem dated at best. Brat summer – the Collins Dictionary went for “brat” – already feels a long time ago.
从莎士比亚到 JK 罗琳，几个世纪以来，作家们一直在创造新词。互联网正在接管一切，这并不奇怪：新技术需要新词和谈论我们如何与之互动的新方式。人们通常认为电话的发明带来了“你好”和“嗨”的使用。过去 20 年里表现最好的词汇是“podcast”（由 iPod 和“broadcast”组合而成）和“selfie”等名词，而不是那些描述社会趋势的词汇，如“chav”或“squeezed middle”，现在看来充其量也过时了。Brat summer（柯林斯词典将“ brat”译为“brat ”）已经让人觉得已经是很久以前的事了。
The 2022 winner “goblin mode” (“unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy”) led to accusations that Oxford Dictionaries had “donned a back-to?front baseball hat and skateboarded across the news” – a little unfair given that it was chosen by a public vote. Slang is often the spark for lexical innovation.
2022 年获奖词“妖精模式”（“毫无歉意地自我放纵、懒惰、邋遢或贪婪”）导致人们指责牛津词典“戴上一顶前后颠倒的棒球帽，在新闻中玩滑板”——考虑到它是通过公众投票选出的，这有点不公平。俚语往往是词汇创新的火花。
Is the word of the year more than a PR stunt or “neeky” (do keep up) parlour game? While the wordsmiths at OUP try to look beyond the grim news cycle, the lexical snapshots of the last 20 years have rarely been cheery – the 2015 “face with tears of joy emoji” smacked of desperation. This year doesn’t look like bucking the trend.
年度词汇是否只是公关噱头或“ neeky ”（继续）客厅游戏？尽管牛津大学出版社的词汇大师们试图超越严峻的新闻周期，但过去 20 年的词汇快照很少令人愉快——2015 年的“喜极而泣的表情符号”带有绝望的味道。今年似乎不会逆势而上。
Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary has plumped for “enshittification”, coined by Cory Doctorow, as its word of the year for 2024. The OUP is too “demure” for such a choice. Perhaps the American writer Henry David Thoreau was describing a similar mood way back in 1845: “While England endeavors to cure the potato?rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally?”
澳大利亚的麦考瑞词典将科利·多克托罗创造的“ enshittification ”选为 2024 年年度词汇。牛津大学出版社对这样的选择太“谦虚”了。也许美国作家亨利·戴维·梭罗早在 1845 年就描述了类似的情绪：“当英国努力治愈马铃薯腐烂时，难道不会努力治愈更为广泛和致命的脑腐烂吗？”
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