牛津词典：今年选不出年度词汇了
去年，牛津词典（Oxford Dictionaries）年度词汇：Climate Emergency（气候紧急状态）。前年的牛津词典年度词汇则为：Toxic 有毒！
今年，牛津词典官方表示，今年，“史无前例的一年”太难了，选不出，就不选了！给你们一个词汇列表，你们自己选。
列表中的词汇包括：Bushfire（森林大火）、Impeachment（弹劾）、Acquittal（无罪判决）、Coronavirus（冠状病毒）、Covid-19、Lockdown（封锁）、social distancing（社交距离）、Reopening（重新开放）、Black Lives Matter（黑人的命也是命）、Cancel Culture（取消文化）、BIPOC（黑人、土著人和其他有色人种）、Mail-In（邮寄）、Belarusian（白俄罗斯）、Moonshot（大规模新冠病毒检测计划名）、Superspreader（超级传播者）、Net Zero（净零）......
无注释原文：
Oxford Dictionaries: 2020 has too many Words of the Year to name just one
The Guardian
For the first time, the Oxford English Dictionary has chosen not to name a word of the year, describing 2020 as “a year which cannot be neatly accommodated in one single word”. Instead, from “unmute” to “mail-in”, and from “coronavirus” to “lockdown”, the eminent reference work has announced its “words of an ‘unprecedented’ year”.
On Monday, the dictionary said that there were too many words to sum up the events of 2020. Tracking its vast corpus of more than 11bn words found in web-based news, blogs and other text sources, its lexicographers revealed what the dictionary described as “seismic shifts in language data and precipitous frequency rises in new coinage” over the past 12 months.
Coronavirus, one of its words of the year, is a term that dates back to the 1960s, although it was previously mainly used by scientists. By March this year it was one of the most frequently used nouns in the English language. “Covid-19”, first recorded on 11 February in a report by the World Health Organization, quickly overtook coronavirus in frequency of use, noted the dictionary.
One of the year’s most remarkable linguistic developments, according to the OED, has been the extent to which scientific terms have entered general discourse, as we have all become armchair epidemiologists, with most of us now familiar with the term “R number”.
“Before 2020 this was a term known mainly to epidemiologists; now non-experts routinely talk about ‘getting the R down’ or ‘bringing R below 1’. Other terms that have become much more common in everyday discourse this year include ‘flatten the curve’ and ‘community transmission’,” said the dictionary.
Use of the phrase “following the science”, it added, has increased in frequency more than 1,000% compared with 2019.
Other coronavirus-related language cited by the OED includes “pandemic”, which has seen usage increase by more than 57,000% this year, as well as “circuit breaker”, “lockdown”, “shelter-in-place”, “bubbles”, “face masks” and “key workers”.
The revolution in working habits has also affected language, with both “remote” and “remotely” seeing more than 300% growth in use since March. “On mute” and “unmute” have seen 500% rises since March, while the portmanteaus “workation” and “staycation” increased by 500% and 380% respectively.
Other news events have also been reflected in language. In the early months of 2020, there were peaks in usage of “impeachment” and “acquittal”, and “mail-in” has seen an increase of 3,000%. Use of “Black Lives Matter” and “BLM” also surged, as did the term “QAnon”, up by 5,716% on last year. The phrase “conspiracy theory”, meanwhile, has almost doubled in usage between October 2019 and October 2020. Use of “Brexit”, however, has dropped by 80% this year.
“What words best describe 2020? A strange year? A crazy year? A lost year? Oxford Languages’ monitor corpus of English shows a huge upsurge in usage of each of those phrases compared to 2019,” said the OED in its report. “Though what was genuinely unprecedented this year was the hyper-speed at which the English-speaking world amassed a new collective vocabulary relating to the coronavirus, and how quickly it became, in many instances, a core part of the language.”
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注：中文文本为澎湃新闻编译仅供参考，并非一一对应
含注释全文：
Oxford Dictionaries: 2020 has too many Words of the Year to name just one
The Guardian
For the first time, the Oxford English Dictionary has chosen not to name a word of the year, describing 2020 as “a year which cannot be neatly accommodated in one single word”. Instead, from “unmute” to “mail-in”, and from “coronavirus” to “lockdown”, the eminent reference work has announced its “words of an ‘unprecedented’ year”.
《牛津英语词典》（Oxford English Dictionary）首次选择不提名年度词汇，称2020年为“无法用一个词巧妙概括的一年”。相反，从“unmute”到“mail-in”，从“coronavirus”到“lockdown”，这本知名词典公布了“‘史无前例’的一年的年度词汇表”。
neatly
除了表示“整洁地，整齐地”也可以指“简单而聪明地；巧妙地”，英文解释为“in a clever and simple way”举个🌰：
The announcement was neatly timed to coincide with the release of their new album.
这项消息很巧妙地安排在他们的新专辑推出的时候公布。
accommodate
1）表示“为（某人）提供住宿（或膳宿、座位等）”，英文解释为“to provide sb with a room or place to sleep, live or sit”举个🌰：
The hotel can accommodate up to 123 guests.
这家旅馆可供123位旅客住宿。
2）表示“容纳；为…提供空间”，英文解释为“to provide enough space for sb/sth”举个🌰：
Over 10 minutes of music can be accommodated on one CD.
一张激光唱片可以容纳10多分钟的音乐。
3）表示“考虑到；顾及”，英文解释为“to consider sth, such as sb's opinion or a fact, and be influenced by it when you are deciding what to do or explaining sth”举个🌰：
Our proposal tries to accommodate the special needs of minority groups.
我们的提案尽量照顾到少数群体的特殊需要。
eminent
表示“显赫的；卓越的；著名的”，英文解释为“famous, respected, or important”如：an eminent historian 声名显赫的历史学家。
unprecedented
表示“史无前例的，空前的；绝无仅有的”，英文解释为“never having happened or existed in the past”举个🌰：
This century has witnessed environmental destruction on an unprecedented scale.
环境在本世纪遭到了空前的破坏。
🎬电影《星运里的错》（The Fault in Our Stars）中的台词提到：You are so busy being you that you have no idea how utterly unprecedented you are. 你太忙于做自己 都没有意识到自己是那么的令人心动。
On Monday, the dictionary said that there were too many words to sum up the events of 2020. Tracking its vast corpus of more than 11bn words found in web-based news, blogs and other text sources, its lexicographers revealed what the dictionary described as “seismic shifts in language data and precipitous frequency rises in new coinage” over the past 12 months.
周一，该词典表示，有太多的词可以概括2020年的事件。通过对网络新闻、博客和其他文本来源等超过110亿个词的庞大语料库进行追踪，词典编纂者指出，在过去的12个月里，“语言数据发生了翻天覆地的变化，新词出现的频率急剧上升”。
corpus
corpus /ˈkɔːpəs/ 表示“语料库”，英文解释为“a collection of written or spoken material stored on a computer and used to find out how language is used”。
lexicographer
lexicographer /ˌleksɪˈkɒɡrəfə(r)/ 表示“词典编纂者”，英文解释为“a person who writes and edits dictionaries”。
seismic /ˈsaɪzmɪk/
1）表示“地震的；地震引起的”，英文解释为“Seismic means caused by or relating to an earthquake.”举个🌰：
Earthquakes produce two types of seismic waves.
地震产生两种类型的地震波。
2）表示“突然的”，英文解释为“A seismic shift or change is a very sudden or dramatic change.”举个🌰：
I have never seen such a seismic shift in public opinion in such a short period of time.
我从来没有见过公众舆论在这么短的时间内发生如此突然的转变。
🎬电影《哥斯拉》（Godzilla）中的台词提到：We are showing seismic activity to the east near Livermore. 东边靠近利弗莫尔处发现地震活动。
precipitous
precipitous /prɪˈsɪpɪtəs/ 表示“骤然的，急剧的”，英文解释为“If a reduction or increase is precipitous, it is fast or great.”举个🌰：
Over the past 9 months, there has been a precipitous fall in car sales.
在过去的9个月内汽车销量暴跌。
coinage
作名词，表示“新造的词（语）；新词语的创造”，英文解释为“(the inventing of) a new word or phrase in a language”。
📍在凡尔赛文学是什么梗？文中，提到了网友构造了凡尔赛文学这个说法 Chinese netizens coined the term “Versailles literature”，其中coin作动词，熟词僻义，表示“创造（新词语）”，英文解释为“to invent a new word or phrase that other people then begin to use”举个🌰：
He coined the term "Learn and Record".
他创造了Learn and Record这一说法。
Coronavirus, one of its words of the year, is a term that dates back to the 1960s, although it was previously mainly used by scientists. By March this year it was one of the most frequently used nouns in the English language. “Covid-19”, first recorded on 11 February in a report by the World Health Organization, quickly overtook coronavirus in frequency of use, noted the dictionary.
“Coronavirus”是2020年度词汇之一，这个词的出现可以追溯到20世纪60年代，不过以前主要被科学家使用。到今年3月，它已成为英语中使用最频繁的名词之一。《牛津英文词典》指出，2月11日，世界卫生组织（World Health Organization）在一份报告中首次记录了“Covid-19”，其使用频率迅速超过了“冠状病毒”。
overtake
表示“（数量或程度上）大于，超过”，英文解释为“to go past something by being a greater amount or degree”，举个🌰：
Our US sales have now overtaken our sales in Europe.
我们在美国的销售额现已超过了我们在欧洲的销售额。
🎬电影《巫山历险记》（Race to Witch Mountain）中的台词提到：They will overtake our vehicle in less than one minute. 不到一分钟就能追上我们。
One of the year’s most remarkable linguistic developments, according to the OED, has been the extent to which scientific terms have entered general discourse, as we have all become armchair epidemiologists, with most of us now familiar with the term “R number”.
根据《牛津英文词典》，今年最显著的一项语言学发展就是科学术语进入大众话语的程度，因为我们都成了纸上谈兵的传染病学家，我们大多数人现在都熟悉“R值”这个词。
discourse
1）表示“论文；演讲”，英文解释为“a long and serious treatment or discussion of a subject in speech or writing”，如：a discourse on issues of gender equality 关于性别平等的论文。
2）表示“语篇；话语”，英文解释为“the use of language in speech and writing in order to produce meaning; language that is studied, usually in order to see how the different parts of a text are connected”。
armchair
表示“无实际经验的；不切实际的；空谈的”，英文解释为“used to refer to a person who knows, or says they know, a lot about a subject without having direct experience of it”如：an armchair critic/gardener/traveller 夸夸其谈的评论家/手不沾泥的园艺家/足不出户的神游旅行者。
epidemiologist
epidemiologist /ˌepɪˌdiːmiˈɑːlədʒɪst/ 表示“流行病学家”，英文解释为“Epidemiologists are scientists who study diseases within populations of people. In essence, these public health professionals analyze what causes disease outbreaks in order to treat existing diseases and prevent future outbreaks.”
“Before 2020 this was a term known mainly to epidemiologists; now non-experts routinely talk about ‘getting the R down’ or ‘bringing R below 1’. Other terms that have become much more common in everyday discourse this year include ‘flatten the curve’ and ‘community transmission’,” said the dictionary.
“在2020年之前，这个词主要为传染病学家所知；现在，非专业人士经常谈论‘把R值降下来（getting the R down）’或‘把R降至1以下（bringing R below 1）’。今年在日常用语中更常见的还有‘拉平曲线（flatten the curve）’和‘社区传播（community transmission）’。”
Use of the phrase “following the science”, it added, has increased in frequency more than 1,000% compared with 2019.
报告还称，与2019年相比，“遵循科学”一词的使用频率增加了1000%以上。
Other coronavirus-related language cited by the OED includes “pandemic”, which has seen usage increase by more than 57,000% this year, as well as “circuit breaker”, “lockdown”, “shelter-in-place”, “bubbles”, “face masks” and “key workers”.
《牛津英文词典》引用的其他与冠状病毒相关的用语包括“pandemic”（大流行），今年该词的使用率增加了57,000%；还有“circuit breaker”（熔断）、“lockdown”（封锁）、“shelter-in-place”（居家避疫）、“bubbles”（泡沫/隔离区）、“face masks”（口罩）和“key workers”（关键岗位员工）。
bubble
作名词大家都很熟悉，表示“泡；气泡；泡沫”，英文解释为“a ball of gas that appears in a liquid, or a ball formed of air surrounded by liquid that floats in the air”。
NBA复赛以来，如果你有关注相关媒体或者社交平台咨询的话，你可能会经常看到这个词。此前在“湖人总冠军！”文中解释过bubble的含义，这里再复习一遍。
📍比如，当时詹姆斯发了推特提到“to head to the bubble”，准备前往bubble；
📍华盛顿邮报（The Washington Post）的标题：A farewell to the NBA bubble after three grueling and exhilarating months. 艰苦和兴奋的三个月后，要告别这个NBA Bubble了，
📍纽约时报（The New York Times）提到的：The True Cost of Life in the N.B.A. Bubble，
那么这个“泡泡”bubble到底和NBA什么关系呢？
The 2020 NBA Bubble, also referred to as the Disney Bubble or Orlando Bubble, was the isolation zone at Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando, that was created by the National Basketball Association (NBA) to protect its players from the COVID-19 pandemic during the final eight games of the 2019–20 regular season and throughout the 2020 NBA playoffs.
📍实际上指的就是，因疫情防疫需要，NBA复赛时要求所有球队人员都集中到某个地方隔离（比如前面提到的Gran Destino Tower五星级酒店），不能随意外出串门之类的，等等要求严格遵守各种防疫措施。这个地区，或者说园区，就好像一个“泡泡”一样，与外界隔离开了，就叫做bubble，是不是很形象！
The revolution in working habits has also affected language, with both “remote” and “remotely” seeing more than 300% growth in use since March. “On mute” and “unmute” have seen 500% rises since March, while the portmanteaus “workation” and “staycation” increased by 500% and 380% respectively.
工作习惯的变革也影响了语言。自今年3月以来，“remote”和“remotely”（远程）的使用率都超过了300%。自今年3月以来，“On mute”（静音）和“unmute”（取消静音）的使用率增长了500%，而“workation”（工作假）和“staycation”（居家度假）这两个合成词的使用率分别增长了500%和380%。
portmanteaus
portmanteau /pɔːtˈmæntəʊ/ 表示“混成词”（合音词、紧缩词、合并词）指由最少两个词语或词语的一部分结合而成的词语或词素，该新词语的意义和读音集组成部分之成。一般而言，混成词是新词。举个🌰：breakfast + lunch 构成了brunch 早午餐。
再比如，上文中的workation就是：work+vacation 指的是：a working vacation; a holiday during which one also works.
Other news events have also been reflected in language. In the early months of 2020, there were peaks in usage of “impeachment” and “acquittal”, and “mail-in” has seen an increase of 3,000%. Use of “Black Lives Matter” and “BLM” also surged, as did the term “QAnon”, up by 5,716% on last year. The phrase “conspiracy theory”, meanwhile, has almost doubled in usage between October 2019 and October 2020. Use of “Brexit”, however, has dropped by 80% this year.
其他新闻事件也反映在了语言上。在2020年的前几个月，“impeachment”（弹劾）和“acquittal”（无罪释放）的使用率达到高峰，“mail-in”（邮寄）的使用率增长了3000%。“Black Lives Matter”和“BLM”（黑人的命也是命）的使用率也大幅上升，“QAnon”（匿名者Q）一词的使用率比去年上升了5716%。与此同时，“conspiracy theory”（阴谋论）一词在2019年10月至2020年10月期间的使用率几乎翻了一番。然而，“Brexit”（脱欧）一词的使用率今年下降了80%。
acquittal
表示“宣判无罪”，英文解释为“the decision of a court that someone is not guilty”。
“What words best describe 2020? A strange year? A crazy year? A lost year? Oxford Languages' monitor corpus of English shows a huge upsurge in usage of each of those phrases compared to 2019,” said the OED in its report. “Though what was genuinely unprecedented this year was the hyper-speed at which the English-speaking world amassed a new collective vocabulary relating to the coronavirus, and how quickly it became, in many instances, a core part of the language.”
用什么词最能形容2020年？“A strange year”（奇怪的一年）？“A crazy year”（疯狂的一年）？还是“A lost year”（失落的一年）？牛津语言监测机构的英语语料库显示，与2019年相比，这些短语的使用都出现了激增。虽然今年真正史无前例的是，英语世界以超高速积累了与冠状病毒相关的新词汇，而且在很多情况下，它迅速成为语言的核心部分。
upsurge
表示“急剧上升；飙升；猛增”，英文解释为“a sudden large increase in sth”，如：a recent upsurge of interest in his movies 最近他的电影掀起的一阵热潮。
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2015年2月8日
2020年11月26日
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