"Funemployment," "PIIGS" and "broken society" have all made their way into the Collins English Dictionary, reflecting the dominance of the economic downturn in last year's consciousness. |
"Funemployment," "PIIGS" and "broken society" have all made their way into the Collins English Dictionary, reflecting the dominance of the economic downturn in last year's consciousness. The latest technological trends have also been captured among the dozens of new inclusions, which were revealed Wednesday, with "tweetheart," "tweet tooth," "tweet-out," "iPad" and "intexticated" all entering the lexicon. "Funemployment" describes the enjoyment had while on an unforeseen break from work and "PIIGS" is an acronym for Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain, the countries most at risk from the European sovereign debt crisis. "Broken society" or "social recession" describe the perceived erosion of moral values while "ghost estate", an unfinished housing development abandoned due to the downturn, is now in the dictionary. Social networking site Twitter is responsible for the addition of "tweetheart," a person who uses the site and is much admired by other users. "Tweet tooth" is the strong urge to post a Twitter update while "tweet-out" is a greeting sent to a friend via the online service. The success of Apple's new "iPad" laptop computer is acknowledged while the addition of "itexticated," which means to be distracted while reading or writing a text message, exposes some of technology's draw-backs. Language-lovers in Glasgow whittled down the final list of new words after feeding written and spoken material from newspapers, websites, magazines, television and radio into a database over the past year. The obsession with celebrity culture is highlighted by the inclusion of "fauxmance," which is a non-existent relationship between stars concocted to attract media attention. Popular political terms are also included with "birther," used to describe a person who believes that US President Barack Obama was not born in America, making the new edition. The addition of "Chindonesia", a portmanteau word which blends China, India and Indonesia, reflects the shifting focus of world trade. There is the usual inclusion of curious buzz-phrases with "grow the beard", an informal term meaning to show a marked improvement in quality. (Read by Lee Hannon. Lee Hannon is a journalist at the China Daily Web site.) (Agencies) |
“失業(yè)樂活”(Funemployment)、“歐豬五國(guó)”(PIIGS) 和“破裂社會(huì)”(broken society)均被收錄到《科林斯英語(yǔ)詞典》中,這反映出了去年經(jīng)濟(jì)衰退在大眾意識(shí)中占據(jù)的主導(dǎo)地位。 周三公布的被收入詞典的幾十個(gè)新詞中,也捕捉到了最新的科技趨勢(shì),如“推特情人”(tweetheart)、“推文狂”(tweettooth)、“在推特上問候”(tweet-out)、“iPad”和“一邊開車一邊發(fā)短信的”(intexticated)等。 “失業(yè)樂活”用于形容在意外失業(yè)之后因享受空閑而感到的快樂?!皻W豬五國(guó)”則是歐洲主權(quán)債務(wù)危機(jī)最嚴(yán)重的葡萄牙、意大利、愛爾蘭、希臘和西班牙五國(guó)的首字母合成詞。 “破裂社會(huì)”或“社會(huì)衰退”(social recession),描述的是人們可以察覺到的道德價(jià)值觀被腐蝕的狀況?!肮碚保╣host estate)一詞也進(jìn)入了詞典,它指的是因經(jīng)濟(jì)衰退而停工的未建成的住宅區(qū)。 “推特情人”被收入詞典,同社交網(wǎng)站推特(Twitter)有關(guān),它指的是在推特網(wǎng)上頗受其它用戶仰慕的推友。 “推文狂”說的是一種更新推文的強(qiáng)烈欲望。而“在推特上問候”指的是通過推特在線服務(wù)向朋友打招呼。 “iPad”被收入詞典,表明蘋果的iPad新型筆記本電腦得到認(rèn)可。另外,“邊開車邊發(fā)短信”一詞則暴露了科技的一些弊端,它指的是開車時(shí)由于看短信或編寫短信而分心。 蘇格蘭格拉斯哥的語(yǔ)言愛好者在過去的一年時(shí)間內(nèi)將許多報(bào)紙、網(wǎng)站、雜志、電視和電臺(tái)的書面和口頭材料匯入數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù),經(jīng)過層層刪減后確定了新詞的最終名單。 “捏造戀情”(fauxmance)指的是明星們?yōu)槲襟w注意捏造的戀情。該詞被收入詞典,也突出反映了大眾對(duì)名人文化的熱衷。 被錄入新版詞典的還有一些流行的政治詞匯,如“出生地質(zhì)疑者”。該詞被用來指那些認(rèn)為美國(guó)總統(tǒng)貝拉克?奧巴馬并非在美國(guó)出生的人。 新詞“亞洲鐵三角”(Chindonesia)這一合成詞是由中國(guó)、印度和印度尼西亞三國(guó)的英語(yǔ)名稱合并而成的,反映出了世界貿(mào)易中心的轉(zhuǎn)移。 和往常一樣,新錄入詞典的詞中還包括一些有趣的時(shí)髦詞,如“長(zhǎng)胡子”(grow the beard),它是一種用于表示質(zhì)量明顯提高的非正式說法。 相關(guān)閱讀 (中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津 實(shí)習(xí)生強(qiáng)鳳華 編輯:陳丹妮) |
Vocabulary: housing development: 【美】=housing estate (統(tǒng)建的)住宅區(qū),住宅群 draw-back: a disadvantage or problem that makes something a less attractive idea(缺點(diǎn);不利條件) whittle down: 減少,縮減(……的大小或數(shù)目) concoct: to invent a story, an excuse, etc. 虛構(gòu),杜撰,編造(故事、借口等) portmanteau word: 縮合詞,合并詞 buzz-phrase: 時(shí)髦的詞組 |