Culture 韋氏詞典評選“文化”爲年度熱詞

SPRINGFIELD, MASS., December 15, 2014—Merriam-Webster Inc., America's leading dictionary publisher, has announced its top ten Words of the Year for 2014. This year's list was compiled by analyzing the top lookups in the online dictionary at and focusing on the words that showed the greatest increase in lookups this year as compared to last year. The results, based on approximately 100 million lookups a month, shed light on topics and ideas that sparked the nation's interest in 2014.
出版大名鼎鼎的《韋氏詞典》的美國梅里厄姆-韋伯斯特公司（Merriam-Webster Inc.）於12月15日公佈了2014年度十大詞語。今年榜單的編輯是在分析了在線詞典上查詢最多的基礎上，並聚焦於同去年相比查詢上升最快的詞語得出。這份結果，基於一個月裏大約1億次的查詢，清楚地顯示出2014年全民感興趣的話題和觀點。

The Word of the Year, with the greatest number of lookups and a significant increase over last year, is Culture. Culture is not associated with any one event, but instead dominated the headlines this year, on topics ranging from "celebrity culture" to "rape culture" to "company culture." In years past, lookups for the word culture spiked in the fall, as students encountered the word in titles and descriptions of courses and books, but this year lookups have moved from seasonal to persistent, as culture has become a term frequently used in discussions of social phenomena.
年度擁有大量查詢數和同去年相比急速上升的熱詞是文化（culture）。文化不和任何一個事件相關，但是反而在今年霸佔了頭條，話題的範圍從“名流文化”到“強姦文化”到“企業文化”都有。在過去十幾年裏，查詢“文化”這個詞在秋季增加，因爲學生會在標題和課程及書本的描述裏碰到這個詞，但是今年，查詢數從季節性的變成了長久性的，因爲“文化”已經成爲一個可以經常用於文化現象討論的熱詞。

"Culture is a word that we seem to be relying on more and more. It allows us to identify and isolate an idea, issue, or group with seriousness," explains Peter Sokolowski, Editor at Large for Merriam-Webster. "And it's efficient: we talk about the 'culture' of a group rather than saying 'the typical habits, attitudes, and behaviors' of that group. So we think that it may be the increased use of this newer sense of the word culture that is catching people's attention and driving the volume of lookups."
“文化，似乎成爲我們越來越依賴的一個詞，它讓我們嚴肅地定義和疏遠一個觀念，問題，或者小團體，”大《韋氏詞典》的主編彼得·索科洛夫斯基解釋道。“而且它很有效：我們在圈子裏談論‘文化’，而不是說一些‘典型的習慣，態度，和行爲’。所以我們認爲也許使用‘文化’這個詞的新感覺的上漲，吸引了人們的注意，而且提升了查詢量。”

The next two words on the list, nostalgia and insidious, saw huge increases in use this year, primarily because of their entertainment connection. Nostalgia was used in discussions about the television series Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire, and other cultural milestones like the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' arrival in America. "We saw more than a 100% increase in lookups of nostalgia this year," says Kory Stamper, an Associate Editor at Merriam-Webster. "It was certainly used in reference to pop culture and television, but it was also used as a way to frame larger political discussions. We spotted examples of nostalgia used in connection with the annexation of Crimea and the defeat of Eric Cantor. People often think of nostalgia as a return to 'good old days,' so these uses that go beyond the personal may have surprised some readers and sent them to the dictionary."
榜單上排名二三的單詞，“懷舊”（nostalgia）和“陰險的”（insidious），在今年也大幅上升，主要是因爲他們的娛樂聯繫。“懷舊”被用於美劇《廣告狂人》和《大西洋帝國》，還有其他像“披頭士樂隊赴美50週年紀念”這樣文化里程碑的討論。“我們發現今年‘懷舊’的查詢翻了一倍，”《韋氏詞典》的副主編科裏·斯坦普兒說道，”它很顯然被用在關於流行文化和電視劇中，但是也會取景更大範圍內的政治討論。我們發現了‘懷舊’用於兼併克里米亞和艾瑞克·康托爾在茶黨初選中失敗。人們常常將’懷舊‘看作是‘昔日美好’的迴歸，所以這些非個人行的用法也許會讓一些讀者感到震驚，然後他們會再去查查字典。”

Lookups for insidious spiked when the horror sequel Insidious 3 was announced, but a more poignant use of insidious followed the death of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S.
查詢‘陰險的’這個詞是在恐怖片續集《潛伏3》發佈之後，但是“陰險的”這個詞更深刻的用法是在首例埃博拉病毒攜帶者托馬斯·埃裏克·鄧肯的死亡之後。

Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year for 2014:《韋氏詞典》2014年度熱詞（更多用法請參考CC詞典）：

ure文化

algia懷舊

dious陰險的,隱伏的

cy遺產

nism女性主義

ne sais quoi我不知道是什麼，難以描述的事物（原爲法語）

vation革新

eptitious祕密的

nomy自治

idity發病率