Culture 韦氏词典评选“文化”为年度热词

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 Merriam-Webster.com 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《韦氏词典》的美国梅里厄姆-韦伯斯特公司（Merriam-Webster Inc.）于12月15日公布了2014年度十大词语。今年榜单的编辑是在分析了Merriam-Webster.com在线词典上查询最多的基础上，并聚焦于同去年相比查询上升最快的词语得出。这份结果，基于一个月里大约1亿次的查询，清楚地显示出2014年全民感兴趣的话题和观点。

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.
年度拥有大量查询数和同去年相比急速上升的热词是文化（culture）。文化不和任何一个事件相关，但是反而在今年霸占了头条，话题的范围从“名流文化”到“强奸文化”到“企业文化”都有。在过去十几年里，查询“文化”这个词在秋季增加，因为学生会在标题和课程及书本的描述里碰到这个词，但是今年，查询数从季节性的变成了长久性的，因为“文化”已经成为一个可以经常用于文化现象讨论的热词。

"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，似乎成为我们越来越依赖的一个词，它让我们严肃地定义和疏远一个观念，问题，或者小团体，”大《韦氏词典》的主编彼得·索科洛夫斯基解释道。“而且它很有效：我们在圈子里谈论‘文化’，而不是说一些‘典型的习惯，态度，和行为’。所以我们认为也许使用‘文化’这个词的新感觉的上涨，吸引了人们的注意，而且提升了查询量。”

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."
榜单上排名二三的单词，“怀旧”（nostalgia）和“阴险的”（insidious），在今年也大幅上升，主要是因为他们的娱乐联系。“怀旧”被用于美剧《广告狂人》和《大西洋帝国》，还有其他像“披头士乐队赴美50周年纪念”这样文化里程碑的讨论。“我们发现今年‘怀旧’的查询翻了一倍，”《韦氏词典》的副主编科里·斯坦普儿说道，”它很显然被用在关于流行文化和电视剧中，但是也会取景更大范围内的政治讨论。我们发现了‘怀旧’用于兼并克里米亚和艾瑞克·康托尔在茶党初选中失败。人们常常将’怀旧‘看作是‘昔日美好’的回归，所以这些非个人行的用法也许会让一些读者感到震惊，然后他们会再去查查字典。”

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.
查询‘阴险的’这个词是在恐怖片续集《潜伏3》发布之后，但是“阴险的”这个词更深刻的用法是在首例埃博拉病毒携带者托马斯·埃里克·邓肯的死亡之后。

Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year for 2014:《韦氏词典》2014年度热词（更多用法请参考CC词典）：

1.Culture文化

2.Nostalgia怀旧

3.Insidious阴险的,隐伏的

4.Legacy遗产

5.Feminism女性主义

6.Je ne sais quoi我不知道是什么，难以描述的事物（原为法语）

7.Innovation革新

8.Surreptitious秘密的

9.Autonomy自治

10.Morbidity发病率