牛津英語詞典又錄新詞 “關注”、“粉絲”等入選

《牛津英語辭典》最近公佈了新近收錄和修訂的1200多個詞條，“關注（follow）”、“粉絲（follower）”、“快閃族（flash mob）”，以及美劇《生活大爆炸》中常用到的“極客範兒（geekery）”等詞均被收錄其中。牛津英語詞典網站每三個月會發布一批新近收錄的詞條，此次收錄的“發推、推文（tweet）”等這些跟社交媒體相關的詞彙在過去六年間已成爲人們日常用語的一部分。詞典主編約翰•辛普森表示，此次收錄的詞條至少打破了《牛津英語辭典》的一項傳統慣例，以往來說，詞條要使用十年以上纔會被收錄，但現在“這個傳統似乎也跟着時代在改變”。

同時被收錄的新詞條還包括：“老爸舞姿（dad dancing）”、“快閃族（flash mob）”、“衆包（crowdsourcing）”等。其中，“老爸舞姿”來自於英國，原指新郎或新娘的父親在婚禮上有點老土的舞姿，後來被英國人用來形容讓人看了不舒服的，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.