威廉未婚妻凱特訂婚長裙慘遭山寨

Two bizarre expressions from the internet age - 'tweep' and 'woot' - were yesterday shortlisted as Oxford Dictionaries' word of the year.
　　昨日的一則新聞定會讓廣大的“微博迷”們狂喜不已，新興網絡微博用語“tweep”與“woot”成爲牛津字典的“年度熱詞備選名單”中的一員。

These two bizarre expressions from the internet age were ­yesterday shortlisted as Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year. For those not in the know, a ‘tweep’ is someone who either uses or follows someone else on the social networking site Twitter. And ‘woot’ is an expression of elation used on internet message boards and forums.

這兩個完全來自於網絡的新興詞彙得意於如今新興的社交工具---微博。“Tweep”是Sheep（羊）和Twitter（微博）的結合，就是指一天到晚“活”在微博上的自說自話或跟風別人的人，用英文sheep（羊）作爲改詞的後綴，意在形容這些微博的狂熱愛好者如同羊一樣勤勤懇懇，此外，人們還給“Tweep”起了一箇中文名----“微生物” 也就是形容愛好微博的網民。“woot”是網民在微博、論壇上表達自己“狂喜”心情的意思。

Yesterday’s winner was somewhat better known, however, with David Cameron’s ‘big society’ phrase emerging triumphant. The term, which attracted criticism during the election for being ambiguous, is defined as: ‘A political concept whereby a significant amount of responsibility for the running of a society’s services is devolved to local communities and volunteers.’

據悉，上一屆牛津詞典“年度熱詞”被英國現任首相--卡梅倫奪得，他在競選綱領中，直接提出了要建造“大社會”（Big Society）的概念，邀請全體公民“參與英國政府”。“大社會”也成功成爲熱詞，而該詞因“野心味太重”引起了反對者的批評。

Susie Dent, of Oxford Dictionaries, said: ‘Big society was for us a clear winner because it embraces so much of the year’s political and economic mood. Taken to mean many things, it has begun to take on a life of its own – a sure sign of linguistic success.’

來自牛津字典的工作人員Susie Dent說：“卡梅倫的‘大社會’一次詞因囊括了世界的政治與經濟因素，當選去年的年度熱詞算是實至名歸。而今年的備選熱詞與老百姓生活聯繫緊密，牛津熱詞的選擇既權威又貼近生活，乃語言學的成功典範。”

Vocabulary：

twitter n. 微博客，鳥叫聲；vt. 吱吱叫；嘁嘁喳喳地講