韋氏公佈年度詞彙，遊戲新詞排名首位

Expect cheers among hardcore online Game enthusiasts when they learn Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year. Or, more accurately, expect them to "w00t."

當鐵桿網絡遊戲迷們得知《韋氏大詞典》 “2007年度詞彙”的評選結果時，他們一定會歡呼躍雀躍——或者更準確的說，他們會說“w00t”。

"W00t," a hybrid of letters and numbers used by gamers as an exclamation of happiness, topped all other terms in the Springfield dictionary publisher's online poll for the word that best sums up 2007.

在《韋氏大詞典》（總部位於斯布林菲爾德）“2007年度詞彙” 的在線評選中，“w00t”擊敗其它詞彙拔得頭籌。“W00t”是字母與數字的“混搭詞”，網絡遊戲玩家在玩得很爽或打敗對方時常會說這個詞。

Merriam-Webster's president, John Morse, said "w00t" was an ideal choice because it blends whimsy and new technology.

《韋氏大詞典》總裁約翰•莫斯說，“w00t”一詞既新奇，又體現了新技術，無疑是今年年度詞彙的最佳選擇。

"It shows a really interesting thing that's going on in language. It's a term that's arrived only because we're now communicating electronically with each other," Morse said.

莫斯說：“它體現了當今語言發展中一個十分有趣的現象。“W00t”這個詞之所以流行，正是因爲我們進入了‘電子化交流’時代。”

Gamers commonly substitute numbers and symbols for the letters they resemble, Morse says, creating what they call "l33t speak" - that's "leet" when spoken, short for "elite" to the rest of the world.

莫斯說，遊戲玩家通常用數字和符號來代替字母。他們創造出了一種“l33t speak”“精英語言”（網絡黑話），“l33t”讀作“leet”，是elite（精英）一詞的縮寫。

For technophobes, the word also is familiar from the 1990 movie "Pretty Woman," in which Julia Roberts startles her date's upper-crust friends with a hearty "Woot, woot, woot!" at a polo match.

即使對網絡和遊戲不感興趣的人，對“w00t”這個詞也不應該陌生。在1990年的影片《風月俏佳人》中，由朱莉婭•羅伯茨飾演的女主角在觀看馬球比賽時，大喊“woot!woot!woot!”，令她約會對象的那些上層社會朋友驚詫不已。

The 2006 pick, "truthiness," also has its roots in pop culture.

2006年的年度詞彙“truthiness”也植根於流行文化。

Some also-rans in the 2007 list: the use of "facebook" as a verb to signify using the website by that name; nuanced terms such as "quixotic" and "hypocrite"; and "blamestorm," a meeting in which mistakes are aired, fingers are pointed and much discomfort is had by all.

入圍《韋氏大詞典》2007年度流行詞排行榜的其它一些詞彙包括：“facebook”，用作動詞，意爲“使用Facebook社交網站；“blamestorm”，指的是一種互相指責、互相推卸責任、令所有人都感覺不爽的會議。（譯者注：與brainstorm頭腦風暴不同，blamestorm指責風暴常在項目失敗後舉行）

小編：每個用戶訪問韋氏詞典的網站時，會收到一份邀請，從讀者查找最頻繁的單詞或詞組中選出一個年度詞彙。結果高中狀元的竟然是遊戲玩家用來表示快樂的單詞“w00t”。你平時都用小D查過什麼詞呢？快去翻翻你的生詞本吧。