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 2017, 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 2017 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
它已经让全球的人们欢笑了25年,但现在才正式在文化辞典中拥有了荣誉的一席之地。GIF正式获选为今年《牛津美国辞典》的年度词汇。
牛津大学美国辞典项目负责人凯瑟琳-马丁说:“GIF在2017年成为词汇的里程碑,作为动词当选年度词汇,而不仅仅是名词。”
“GIF已经从流行文化基因的媒介发展成为有多种用途的工具,比如用于研究和资讯业,而它在词汇方面的定位也在随之改变。”
GIF是“图形交换格式”三个英文单词首字母的缩写。最早在1987年由美国在线信息服务机构“计算机服务”公布,但近些年在文化领域强势复苏,最常用于对从体育到美国大选等热门话题的诙谐评论。
年度词汇榜单的第二位也是一个缩写YOLO,意思是“你只有一辈子可活”。
入选年度名单的还有“超级风暴”,该词因为在11月的第一周横扫美国东岸的桑迪飓风大量曝光。
英国版的牛津辞典今年的年度词汇则是“一团糟”,含义是“由于管理非常不当,出现大量的错误和误差,导致的混乱局面。”
毫无疑问,以上三个词汇都表明了新词正对文化景观产生越来越大的影响。
另外,一些旧有词汇也被赋予新的语义。源自罗马词汇plebs(平民、民众)的Pleb在现代语境中用来形容普通人或者工人阶级,含有贬义。
有趣的是,即便当选年度词汇,也不能保证入选的词汇将来都会收录进《牛津英语辞典》。
其他入选的词汇还有:
1. 非常严峻的欧洲危机。由 Euro和 Armageddon合成而来。
2. 超级政治行动组织
3. 超级风暴
4. 无手机焦虑症
5. 希格斯玻色子,或称“上帝粒子”
6. YOLO:“你只有一辈子可活”,
7. MOOC: 大量的网络公开课程
新英语四六级阅读部分特点解析
英语四级复习之选词填空练习题(6)
英语四级复习之选词填空练习题(5)
英语四级阅读复习之精选练习题(8)
英语四级选词填空练习题(9)
英语四级考试阅读训练题(1)
英语四级阅读复习之精选练习题(10)
英语四级复习之选词填空练习题(2)
英语四级阅读复习之精选练习题(13)
英语四级阅读复习之精选练习题(7)
英语四级阅读复习之精选练习题(12)
英语四级阅读复习之精选练习题(1)
英语四级考试复习之选词填空练习题(2)
英语四级考试选词填空复习之练习题(1)
英语四级复习之选词填空练习题(3)
英语四级考试复习之选词填空练习题(1)
英语四级选词填空练习题(1)
英语四级阅读复习之精选练习题(15)
英语四级复习之选词填空练习题(8)
英语四级考试复习之选词填空练习题(10)
英语四级考试选词填空复习之练习题(7)
英语四级阅读复习之常考短语(12)
英语四级阅读复习之常考短语(11)
英语四级阅读复习之常考短语(3)
英语四级阅读复习之精选练习题(5)
英语四级阅读复习之精选练习题(3)
英语四级阅读复习之精选练习题(2)
英语四级阅读复习之精选练习题(11)
英语四级复习之选词填空练习题(1)
英语四级阅读复习之精选练习题(6)
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |