|
大家來學「時髦」的英文(不是蔡總統的打扮！) -LEANNE ITALIE
|
瀏覽433 ｜回應2｜推薦1 |
|
|
|
我卸下「助教」工作已經50多年；有興趣學習的朋友，就請勤上Google。
What's Merriam-Webster's word of the year for 2023? Hint: Be true to yourself
LEANNE ITALIE, 11/27/023
This image released by Merriam-Webster shows an online dictionary entry for authentic. (Merriam-Webster via AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS) -- 請至原網頁觀看。
NEW YORK (AP) — In an age of deepfakes and post-truth, as artificial intelligence rose and Elon Musk turned Twitter into X, the Merriam-Webster word of the year for 2023 is “authentic.”
Authentic cuisine. Authentic voice. Authentic self. Authenticity as artifice. Lookups for the word are routinely heavy on the dictionary company's site but were boosted to new heights throughout the year, editor at large Peter Sokolowski told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview.
“We see in 2023 a kind of crisis of authenticity,” he said ahead of Monday's announcement of this year's word. “What we realize is that when we question authenticity, we value it even more.”
Sokolowski and his team don't delve into the reasons people head for dictionaries and websites in search of specific words. Rather, they chase the data on lookup spikes and world events that correlate. This time around, there was no particularly huge boost at any given time but a constancy to the increased interest in “authentic.”
This was the year of artificial intelligence, for sure, but also a moment when ChatGPT-maker OpenAI suffered a leadership crisis. Taylor Swift and Prince Harry chased after authenticity in their words and deeds. Musk himself, at February's World Government Summit in Dubai, urged the heads of companies, politicians, ministers and other leaders to “speak authentically” on social media by running their own accounts.
“Can we trust whether a student wrote this paper? Can we trust whether a politician made this statement? We don't always trust what we see anymore,” Sokolowski said. “We sometimes don't believe our own eyes or our own ears. We are now recognizing that authenticity is a performance itself."
Merriam-Webster's entry for “authentic” is busy with meaning.
There is “not false or imitation: real, actual,” as in an authentic cockney accent. There's “true to one's own personality, spirit or character.” There's “worthy of acceptance or belief as conforming to or based on fact.” There is “made or done the same way as an original.” And, perhaps the most telling, there's “conforming to an original so as to reproduce essential features.”
“Authentic” follows 2022’s choice of “gaslighting.” And 2023 marks Merriam-Webster’s 20th anniversary choosing a top word.
The company’s data crunchers filter out evergreen words like “love” and “affect” vs. “effect” that are always high in lookups among the 500,000 words it defines online. This year, the wordsmiths also filtered out numerous five-letter words because Wordle and Quordle players clearly use the company’s site in search of them as they play the daily games, Sokolowski said.
Sokolowski, a lexicologist, and his colleagues have a bevy of runners-up for word of the year that also attracted unusual traffic. They include “X” (lookups spiked in July after Musk's rebranding of Twitter), “EGOT” (there was a boost in February when Viola Davis achieved that rare quadruple-award status with a Grammy) and “Elemental,” the title of a new Pixar film that had lookups jumping in June.
Rounding out the company's top words of 2023, in no particular order:
RIZZ: Slang for “romantic appeal or charm" and seemingly short for charisma. Merriam-Webster added the word to its online dictionary in September and it's been among the top lookups since, Sokolowski said.
KIBBUTZ: There was a massive spike in lookups for “a communal farm or settlement in Israel” after Hamas militants attacked several near the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7. The first kibbutz in Israel was founded circa 1909.
IMPLODE: The June 18 implosion of the Titan submersible on a commercial expedition to explore the Titanic wreckage sent lookups soaring for this word, meaning “to burst inward.” “It was a story that completely occupied the world,” Sokolowski said.
DEADNAME: Interest was high in what Merriam-Webster defines as “the name that a transgender person was given at birth and no longer uses upon transitioning.” Lookups followed an onslaught of legislation aimed at curtailing LGBTQ+ rights around the country.
DOPPELGANGER: Sokolowski calls this “a word lover's word.” Merriam-Webster defines it as a “double,” an “alter ego” or a “ghostly counterpart.” It derives from German folklore. Interest in the word surrounded Naomi Klein's latest book, “Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World,” released this year. She uses her own experience of often being confused with feminist author and conspiracy theorist Naomi Wolf as a springboard into a broader narrative on the crazy times we're all living in.
CORONATION: King Charles III had one on May 6, sending lookups for the word soaring 15,681% over the year before, Sokolowski said. Merriam-Webster defines it as “the act or occasion of crowning.”
DEEPFAKE: The dictionary company's definition is “an image or recording that has been convincingly altered and manipulated to misrepresent someone as doing or saying something that was not actually done or said.” Interest spiked after Musk’s lawyers in a Tesla lawsuit said he is often the subject of deepfake videos and again after the likeness of Ryan Reynolds appeared in a fake, AI-generated Tesla ad.
DYSTOPIAN: Climate chaos brought on interest in the word. So did books, movies and TV fare intended to entertain. “It's unusual to me to see a word that is used in both contexts,” Sokolowski said.
COVENANT: Lookups for the word meaning “a usually formal, solemn, and binding agreement” swelled on March 27, after a deadly mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee. The shooter was a former student killed by police after killing three students and three adults.
Interest also spiked with this year's release of “Guy Ritchie's The Covenant” and Abraham Verghese's long-awaited new novel, “The Covenant of Water,” which Oprah Winfrey chose as a book club pick.
More recently, soon after U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson ascended to House speaker, a 2022 interview with the Louisiana congressman recirculated. He discussed how his teen son was then his “accountability partner” on Covenant Eyes, software that tracks browser history and sends reports to each partner when porn or other potentially objectionable sites are viewed.
INDICT: Former President Donald Trump has been indicted on felony charges in four criminal cases in New York, Florida, Georgia and Washington, D.C., in addition to fighting a lawsuit threatening his real estate empire.
本文於 修改第 2 次
|
|
瑪麗安-韋布斯特字典2024年度字 -- Chad de Guzman
|
|
|
推薦1 |
|
|
|
2024的「年度字」和其它九個「時髦字」我就不翻譯了；各位請細細玩味、品嚐。
Merriam-Webster Picks Its Word of the Year—and Highlights Nine Others That Defined 2024
Chad de Guzman, 12/09/24
Sharp divides have seemed to define America lately—and Merriam-Webster just made it official.
The famous American dictionary publisher on Monday announced that “polarization”—defined as “division into two sharply distinct opposites; especially, a state in which the opinions, beliefs, or interests of a group or society no longer range along a continuum but become concentrated at opposing extremes”—is its Word of the Year for 2024.
The term—which dates back to the early 1800s in reference to light waves but is often used today in relation to politics—was chosen at the end of the world’s biggest-ever election year, including a U.S. presidential race that saw left and right continue to split further apart. Merriam-Webster had already announced in October the introduction of new words to its dictionary in 2024, including “far left” and “far right” as well as “MAGA”—the shorthand for President-elect Donald Trump’s highly-polarizing Make America Great Again movement.
Polarization tends to be decried by observers. It’s bad for democracy, bad for our health. “In a little bit ironic twist to the word,” said Merriam-Webster’s editor at large Peter Sokolowski of the wide usage of “polarization” across the spectrum, in an interview with the Associated Press, “it’s something that actually everyone agrees on.”
But Merriam-Webster didn’t just pick one word for 2024. It also highlighted nine others that the dictionary publisher said “stood out” in search volume on its website this year:
totality
Defined as “the phase of an eclipse during which it is total,” the word “totality” garnered much interest surrounding the total solar eclipse that occurred in April 2024—a rare astronomical event that inspired intrigue and travel.
demure
The word “demure,” was popularized this year by TikTok creator Jools Lebron, who started an Internet trend centered around the phrase “very demure, very mindful.” According to Merriam-Webster: “In its earliest use in the 14th century, demure described people who avoid drawing attention to themselves. Since then, it has also come to describe those whose shyness is a bit of an act.”
fortnight
“Fortnight”—a primarily British word for a span of 14 days—was plucked “out of relative obscurity,” according to Merriam-Webster, by Taylor Swift, who promoted her 2024 album The Tortured Poets Department with a “#ForAFortnightChallenge” on social media and whose song “Fortnight” has been nominated for Record of the Year at the 67th Grammy Awards. “It remains to be seen whether Swift’s use of the term will lead to its wider adoption in American English,” said the dictionary publisher.
pander
Lookups of the verb “pander”—which means “to say, do, or provide what someone wants or demands even though it is not proper, good, or reasonable”—spiked at the height of the U.S. presidential race in mid-October, according to Merriam-Webster, as both sides accused the other of pandering to different groups—from conservative outlets saying Democratic nominee Kamala Harris did it to Black men to Harris’ running mate Tim Walz saying Trump did it when he visited a McDonald’s.
resonate
Merriam-Webster thinks the word “resonate,” defined as “to affect or appeal to someone in a personal or emotional way,” saw an increase in searches because it is one of ChatGPT’s favorite words in its AI-generated writing. The dictionary publisher also said the word appeared often in news stories about “political positions and issues resonating with voters.”
allision
The word “allision” emerged following the crash of a cargo ship into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in March, which caused the deaths of six workers. While many news outlets used the word “collision”—which Merriam-Webster says “according to some traditional definitions, refers only to contact between two moving objects”—to describe the incident, many maritime publications opted to use “allision”—defined as “the act or an instance of a ship striking a stationary object.”
weird
“Weird” was weaponized by both sides of the political spectrum this presidential election. Minnesota Gov. Walz gained national prominence by his persistent labeling of Republicans and their platform as “weird,” while Republicans showed no hesitation lobbing the adjective (defined as “of strange or extraordinary character”) back at Democrats. “Weird seemed to be directed at not only the policies, but also the appearance and behavior, of the opposing candidates,” said Merriam-Webster.
cognitive
Like several other words on the list, “cognitive”—which means “of, relating to, being, or involving conscious intellectual activity (such as thinking, reasoning, or remembering)”—saw a “notable” rise in searches this year, according to Merriam-Webster, on account of its relevance to the presidential election. President Joe Biden dropped out of the race amid questions about his “cognitive ability,” while Trump also faced accusations of “cognitive decline.” After the election, Merriam-Webster said, the term “cognitive dissonance” (referring to “psychological conflict resulting from incongruous beliefs and attitudes held simultaneously”) “appeared in discussions” about states that voted for Trump but against restrictions on access to abortion.
democracy
The word, which is defined as “government by the people,“ saw a surge in lookups throughout 2024 “across red states and blue states,” according to Merriam-Webster, “as people tried to fully understand what it means.” In a year best summed up by “polarization,” the dictionary publisher fittingly also put the spotlight back on its inaugural Word of the Year for 2003, when it began participating in the annual tradition. “The word democracy never appears in the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution,” Merriam-Webster concluded its announcement, “but it has long been a focus of American and global attention, rarely more so than now.”
More Must-Reads from TIME
Where Trump 2.0 Will Differ From 1.0
How Elon Musk Became a Kingmaker
The Power—And Limits—of Peer Support
The 100 Must-Read Books of 2024
Column: If Optimism Feels Ridiculous Now, Try Hope
The Future of Climate Action Is Trade Policy
FX’s Say Nothing Is the Must-Watch Political Thriller of 2024
Merle Bombardieri Is Helping People Make the Baby Decision
本文於 修改第 1 次
|
|
「腦廢」：2024年度詞 ----- Chad de Guzman
|
|
|
推薦2 |
|
|
|
這是我的翻譯；歡迎建議。
我不怎麼花時間在社交媒體上。雖然有臉書的帳號，但是已經至少5年沒有上去過。我大概2-3天瀏覽一次line和wechat的群組。
不過，我的「腦廢」症狀相當嚴重。由於年齡關係，每天只能在YouTube上看些有的沒的，幫助自己混吃等死。
‘Brain Rot’ is Oxford’s 2024 Word of the Year
Chad de Guzman, 12/02/24
If you’ve been scrolling too long on social media, you might be suffering from “brain rot,” the word of 2024, per the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary.
After public consultation, Oxford University Press announced its choice—defined as the “supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging” as well as “something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration”—on Monday. “Brain rot” beat out five other finalists, including “dynamic pricing,” “lore,” “romantasy,” “slop,” and Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year “demure.”
“‘Brain rot’ speaks to one of the perceived dangers of virtual life, and how we are using our free time,” Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages, said in the announcement. “It feels like a rightful next chapter in the cultural conversation about humanity and technology. It’s not surprising that so many voters embraced the term, endorsing it as our choice this year.”
The first recorded use of “brain rot,” according to Oxford University Press, was in Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, published in 1854. “While England endeavours to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavour to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally?” wrote Thoreau in his treatise on transcendentalism.
But the term has gained new traction in the past year among Gen Z and Gen Alpha. “These communities have amplified the expression through social media channels, the very place said to cause ‘brain rot’,” Grathwohl said. “It demonstrates a somewhat cheeky self-awareness in the younger generations about the harmful impact of social media that they’ve inherited.”
Oxford University Press is celebrating its 20th year of its lexicographers naming an English-language word or expression that reflects the world during the last 12 months. “Looking back at the Oxford Word of the Year over the past two decades, you can see society’s growing preoccupation with how our virtual lives are evolving, the way internet culture is permeating so much of who we are and what we talk about,” said Grathwohl. Last year, the accolade went to “rizz”, a Gen-Z slang abbreviation of charisma. In 2022, it was “goblin mode”—referring to “unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy” behavior. And in 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and discourse about vaccinations, it was “vax.”
Other publications that have named a 2024 word of the year include Collins Dictionary, Cambridge Dictionary, Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary, and The Economist. Collins chose “brat,” an adjective it said gained a new definition—“characterized by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude”—after British pop artist Charlie XCX’s hit album inspired a global cultural phenomenon and aesthetic; Cambridge chose “manifest,” meaning “to imagine achieving something you want, in the belief that doing so will make it more likely to happen,” though Cambridge noted “experts warn that manifesting has no scientific validity”; Macquarie chose “enshittification,” defined as “the gradual deterioration of a service or product brought about by a reduction in the quality of service provided, especially of an online platform, and as a consequence of profit-seeking”; and, in the world’s biggest-ever election year, The Economist chose “kakistocracy,” defined as the “rule of the worst.”
本文於 修改第 2 次
|
|
|
本城市首頁
看回應文章
等級：8
