牛津英语词典又录新词 “关注”、“粉丝”等入选

《牛津英语辞典》最近公布了新近收录和修订的1200多个词条，“关注（follow）”、“粉丝（follower）”、“快闪族（flash mob）”，以及美剧《生活大爆炸》中常用到的“极客范儿（geekery）”等词均被收录其中。牛津英语词典网站每三个月会发布一批新近收录的词条，此次收录的“发推、推文（tweet）”等这些跟社交媒体相关的词汇在过去六年间已成为人们日常用语的一部分。词典主编约翰•辛普森表示，此次收录的词条至少打破了《牛津英语辞典》的一项传统惯例，以往来说，词条要使用十年以上才会被收录，但现在“这个传统似乎也跟着时代在改变”。

同时被收录的新词条还包括：“老爸舞姿（dad dancing）”、“快闪族（flash mob）”、“众包（crowdsourcing）”等。其中，“老爸舞姿”来自于英国，原指新郎或新娘的父亲在婚礼上有点老土的舞姿，后来被英国人用来形容让人看了不舒服的，笨拙的舞步。

The terms “tweet”, “dad dancing” and “geekery” are among more than 1,200 new or revised words that have made it into the latest version of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

In a quarterly update on its website, the dictionary said it had expanded its entries for "follow" (verb), "follower" (noun), and "tweet" (noun and verb) to include social media terms that have become part of the everyday lexicon in the past six years.

The word "tweet" is now defined as a posting on the social networking service Twitter as well as a brief high-pitched sound, its more traditional meaning.

John Simpson, the OED’s chief editor, said: "This breaks at least one OED rule, namely that a new word needs to be current for 10 years before consideration for inclusion. But it seems to be catching on."

“Dad dancing,” a staple of many British weddings, is defined as "an awkward, unfashionable, or unrestrained style of dancing to pop music, as characteristically performed by middle-aged or older men,"

The terms “crowdsourcing" and "flash mob" have also earned a place in the OED, which now contains 823,000 entries, Reuters reported.

"Crowdsourcing" is defined as the practice of obtaining information or services by soliciting input from a large number of people, typically via the Internet and often without offering compensation.

A "flash mob" is a large group of people organized by means of the internet, or mobile phones or other wireless devices, who assemble in public to perform a prearranged action together and then quickly disperse.

Viewers of The Big Bang Theory, the hit American television show, will recognize the word "geekery", meanwhile.

Its meaning has been updated from a rarely used term for bizarre circus acts in favor of an obsessive devotion to or knowledge of a particular subject or pursuit and also the state of being a geek or "geekiness".

Other more topical terms, such as "fiscal cliff", "e-reader" and "fracking" also make appearances in the updated dictionary.