毒债 获选澳大利亚2008年度词汇

After impacting almost every aspect of people's lives, the global financial crisis has now made it into the lexicon, with Australia's prestigious Macquarie Dictionary picking "toxic debt" as its word of the year for 2008.

The noun is one of several new words that will be used in the annual update of the dictionary's online version (www.macquariedictionary.com.au) and which include "flashpacker," a backpacker who travels in relative luxury, "bromance," or an intense but non-sexual relationship between two males, and "textaholic," or someone who sends too many mobile phone SMSes.

"Last year was full of environmental concerns, but the other big thing that happened to us all was the financial crisis, and that has fueled coinage of our word of the year," publisher Sue Butler told the reporters.

"Our words all come from things that preoccupy us all, and are also a sign of how English speaking countries are getting closer together, and the strong trend is from US English these days," she added.

According to the dictionary, "toxic debt" refers to loans initially taken on as a legitimate business transaction, but which prove subsequently financially worthless, as the subprime loans which precipitated the global financial crisis.

The word was picked by the "word of the year" committee, which includes university academia as well as renowned Australian poet Les Murray.

The list of new words was also put up for a public vote, of which "flashpacker" was the winner.

Honorable mentions also go to "guerilla gardener," a person who plants gardens in areas controlled by councils or other organizations but neglected by them, and "lawfare," or the use of international law by a country to attack or criticize another country, especially a superior military power, on moral grounds.

全球金融危机对人们生活的影响无处不在，如今它又成功跻身于大词典。日前，“毒债（toxic debt）”一词被澳大利亚权威词典《麦夸里大字典》评选为2008年年度词汇。

该词将与其它几个新词一同被收录至该词典网络版 (www.macquariedictionary.com.au)每年的最新词汇表中，其它几个新词包括flashpacker（装备较奢华的背包客），bromance（“男漫”，指两个男性之间非性爱的亲密关系）和textaholic（指爱发短信的人）。

出版商休．巴特勒在接受记者采访时说：“去年我们的注意力都在环境问题上，但另一件影响到我们每个人的大事就是金融危机，它造就了我们的‘年度词汇’。”

她说：“我们的词汇都来自影响我们每个人的事件，这也是说英语国家之间关系日益紧密的一个表现，目前这一强劲的趋势主要受到美式英语的推动。”

根据该词典解释，“毒债”指的是最初通过合法交易产生，之后变得不值钱的债务，如引发全球金融危机的次贷危机。

该词由“年度词汇”评选委员会选出，评选委员会成员包括大学学术界代表，澳大利亚著名诗人莱斯．穆雷也在其中。

最新词汇表还面向公众投票，“flashpacker”在票选中胜出。

获得“荣誉奖”的词汇还包括guerilla gardener（“游击种地者”，指在政府或机构地盘上种植植物的人，常与管理者打游击[但因种植绿色植物或蔬菜，起到绿化作用，又常被忽视或容忍]）和lawfare（“国际法战”，指一国利用国际法，以道德为依据攻击或指责另一国，尤指超级军事强国）。

Vocabulary: 

honorable mention:荣誉奖