“GIF”獲選《牛津美國辭典》2012年度詞匯

中國日報網 2012-11-15 10:03

"GIF" has been chosen as word of the year by the Oxford American Dictionary.

It's been delighting people around the world for 25 years but now formally holds a honored place in the cultural lexicon: "GIF" has been chosen as word of the year by the Oxford American Dictionary.

"GIF celebrated a lexical milestone in 2012, gaining traction as a verb, not just a noun," said Katherine Martin, head of the US dictionaries program at Oxford.

"The GIF has evolved from a medium for pop-cultural memes into a tool with serious applications including research and journalism, and its lexical identity is transforming to keep pace."

GIF is, in fact, an abbreviation of three separate words: Graphics Interchange Format. It was first released by CompuServe in 1987 but has experienced a dramatic cultural resurgence in recent years, most commonly used to make humorous commentary on topics ranging from sports to the 2012 presidential election.

The runner-up for the word of the year was also an abbreviation, "YOLO," which stands for "You only live once."

"Superstorm" was another runner-up for word of the year, after the major storm that affected the Eastern US during the first week of November.

The British Oxford Dictionaries went a different route, choosing "omnishambles," as their word of the year, which is defined as "a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, characterized by a string of blunders and miscalculations."

Needless to say, having all three words shows how neologisms are having a growing influence in the cultural landscape.

Still, some older words have found new linguistic relevance. "Pleb," taken from the Roman word "plebs," has found a modern context in its derogatory usage to describe "a member of the ordinary people or working classes."

Interestingly, the word-of the-year distinction does not guarantee that the chosen words will actually be included in future editions of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Here's the other shortlisted words according to OUP:

1. Eurogeddon

2. Super PAC

3. Superstorm

4. Nomophobia

5. Higgs boson

6. YOLO: you only live once

7. MOOC: massive open online course

(Read by Brian Salter. Brian Salter is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

點擊查看更多雙語新聞

(Agencies)

它已經讓全球的人們歡笑了25年，但現在才正式在文化辭典中擁有了榮譽的一席之地。GIF正式獲選為今年《牛津美國辭典》的年度詞匯。

牛津大學美國辭典項目負責人凱瑟琳-馬丁說：“GIF在2012年成為詞匯的里程碑，作為動詞當選年度詞匯，而不僅僅是名詞。”

“GIF已經從流行文化基因的媒介發展成為有多種用途的工具，比如用于研究和新聞業，而它在詞匯方面的定位也在隨之改變。”

GIF是“圖形交換格式”三個英文單詞首字母的縮寫。最早在1987年由美國在線信息服務機構“計算機服務”公布，但近些年在文化領域強勢復蘇，最常用于對從體育到美國大選等熱門話題的詼諧評論。

年度詞匯榜單的第二位也是一個縮寫YOLO，意思是“你只有一輩子可活”。

入選年度名單的還有“超級風暴”，該詞因為在11月的第一周橫掃美國東岸的桑迪颶風大量曝光。

英國版的牛津辭典今年的年度詞匯則是“一團糟”，含義是“由于管理非常不當，出現大量的錯誤和誤差，導致的混亂局面。”

毫無疑問，以上三個詞匯都表明了新詞正對文化景觀產生越來越大的影響。

另外，一些舊有詞匯也被賦予新的語義。源自羅馬詞匯plebs（平民、民眾）的Pleb在現代語境中用來形容普通人或者工人階級，含有貶義。

有趣的是，即便當選年度詞匯，也不能保證入選的詞匯將來都會收錄進《牛津英語辭典》。

其他入選的詞匯還有：

1. 非常嚴峻的歐洲危機。由 Euro和 Armageddon合成而來。

2. 超級政治行動組織

3. 超級風暴

4. 無手機焦慮癥

5. 希格斯玻色子，或稱“上帝粒子”

6. YOLO：“你只有一輩子可活”，

7. MOOC: 大量的網絡公開課程

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