韦氏词典公布2020年度词汇：Pandemic

LearnAndRecord 2022-07-26

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近日，韦氏词典（Merriam-Webster）公布了2020年度词汇：Pandemic（大流行）。

Pandemic这一词，韦氏词典官方给出的释义为：an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area (such as multiple countries or continents) and typically affects a significant proportion of the population. 指的是疾病的爆发，所发生的地域广阔（如多个国家或大洲），通常影响很大一部分人口。

去年，韦氏（Merriam-Webster）词典公布其2019年度词汇：They.

无注释原文：

'Pandemic' is, unsurprisingly, the Word of the Year for Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com

CNN

You've probably heard the word near-daily since March. It's dominated nearly every corner of the world since. And there's no better word to sum up the unbelievable year that was 2020.

"Pandemic" is the Word of the Year for both Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com. It informed top searches on both sites and reshaped the language we use daily, both companies said.

Merriam-Webster, the dictionary publisher, said people looked up "pandemic" with "remarkable frequency" throughout the year -- particularly on March 11, when the World Health Organization officially declared Covid-19 a pandemic. On that day, searches for "pandemic" spiked 115,806% compared to the same day in 2019.

Many of the other top searches on the site were related to the pandemic, including "asymptomatic," "quarantine" and, of course, "coronavirus." And because so many people flocked to Merriam-Webster to define "Covid-19," the mild to severe respiratory illness that is caused by a coronavirus, the word was added to the dictionary within just over one month of its first use.

Dictionary.com said that "pandemic" -- its Word of the Year, too -- is the "defining context of 2020." Now, terms like "social distancing," "flatten the curve" and "herd immunity" aren't just used by health professionals -- the public understands them, too.

"Specialized lingo, spanning topics from epidemiology to social behavior, formed a shared -- and ever-expanding -- glossary for daily life," the online dictionary said in its announcement.

Both dictionaries also included "defund" among their top words of the year. The word reached a wider audience in June amid calls to "defund the police," or withdraw funding from police departments, after George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis.

The rest of the words both dictionaries chose read like a monthly guide to the year that was. President Donald Trump's impeachment trial dominated Dictionary.com's first two months of the year. And Merriam-Webster honored the late Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash in January, by highlighting his nickname, "Mamba."

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注：中文文本为机器翻译仅供参考，并非一一对应

含注释全文：

'Pandemic' is, unsurprisingly, the Word of the Year for Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com

CNN

You've probably heard the word near-daily since March. It's dominated nearly every corner of the world since. And there's no better word to sum up the unbelievable year that was 2020.

自3月以来，你可能每天都会听到这个词。自此，它几乎占据了世界的每一个角落。而没有更好的词来概括2020年这不可思议的一年了。

dominate

表示“统治；控制”，英文解释为“to have control over a place or person”举个🌰：

He refuses to let others speak and dominates every meeting.

每次开会他都专横跋扈，不让他人讲话。

"Pandemic" is the Word of the Year for both Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com. It informed top searches on both sites and reshaped the language we use daily, both companies said.

Pandemic（大流行）是韦氏词典（Merriam-Webster）和词典网Dictionary.com的年度词汇。两家公司都表示，它影响了这两个网站上的热门搜索，并重塑了我们日常使用的语言。

pandemic

1）作名词，表示“（全国或全球性）流行病；大流行病”，英文解释为“a disease that spreads over a whole country or the whole world”；

2）作形容词，表示“（疾病）大规模流行的，广泛蔓延的”，英文解释为“(of a disease) existing in almost all of an area or in almost all of a group of people, animals, or plants”举个🌰：

In some parts of the world malaria is still pandemic.

在世界上一些地区疟疾仍在大规模流行。

对比：

📍epidemic表示“流行病”，英文解释为“a large number of cases of a particular disease happening at the same time in a particular community”，如：the outbreak of a flu epidemic 流感的爆发。

inform

原意表示“通知，告知”，此外还有含义表示“对…有影响；影响着...”，英文解释为“to have an influence on sth”举个🌰：

Religion informs every aspect of their lives.

宗教影响着他们生活的各个方面。

📍此前在六级翻译四大名著三缺一文中提到，These four novels form the core of Chinese classical literature and still inform modern culture. 这四部小说构成了中国古典文学的核心，至今仍在影响着现代文化。

Merriam-Webster, the dictionary publisher, said people looked up "pandemic" with "remarkable frequency" throughout the year -- particularly on March 11, when the World Health Organization officially declared Covid-19 a pandemic. On that day, searches for "pandemic" spiked 115,806% compared to the same day in 2019.

韦氏词典表示，人们在整个一年中以“惊人的频率”查找“Pandemic”一词。--特别是在3月11日，世界卫生组织（World Health Organization）正式宣布Covid-19为大流行病。当天，与2019年同一天相比，“Pandemic”的搜索量激增了115806%。

spike

昨天在剑桥词典公布2020年度词汇：Quarantine中出现的是名词，可以理解为“峰值”或者“激增；猛增；急升”，英文解释为“a sharp increase in the magnitude or concentration of something”，如：a spike in oil prices 油价的急剧上涨。

此外也可以作动词，同样表示“激增”，英文解释为“if the number or rate of something spikes, it increases quickly and by a large amount ”举个🌰：

New orders have spiked in the last two years.

新订单在过去两年里激增。

网站上的其他许多热门搜索都与大流行（pandemic）有关，包括“asymptomatic（无症状）”、“quarantine（隔离）”，当然还有“coronavirus（冠状病毒）”。而因为有大量的人们涌向韦氏词典来定义 “Covid-19”，即由冠状病毒引起的轻度到重度呼吸道疾病，所以这个词在首次使用后的一个多月内就被添加到词典中。

asymptomatic

asymptomatic /æˌsɪmptəˈmætɪk/ 表示“无症状的”，英文解释为“If someone with a disease is asymptomatic, it means that they do not show any symptoms of the disease.”

quarantine

📍剑桥词典的2020年度词汇：Quarantine.

1）作名词，表示“隔离，检疫”，英文解释为“If a person or animal is in quarantine, they are being kept separate from other people or animals for a set period of time, usually because they have or may have a disease that could spread.”举个🌰：

She was sent home and put in quarantine.

她被送回家实施隔离。

2）作动词，表示“对…进行隔离”，英文解释为“If people or animals are quarantined, they are stopped from having contact with other people or animals. If a place is quarantined, people and animals are prevented from entering or leaving it.”举个🌰：

Dogs have to be quarantined for six months before they'll let them in.

狗必须被隔离6个月后他们才会放它们进来。

flock to

表示“成群结队地去，蜂拥而至”，英文解释为“if people flock to a place, they go there in large numbers because something interesting or exciting is happening there”举个🌰：

People have been flocking to the exhibition.

看展览的人络绎不绝。

respiratory

respiratory /ˈrɛspərətərɪ/ 表示“呼吸的”，英文解释为“connected with breathing”，如：the respiratory system 呼吸系统，respiratory diseases 呼吸道疾病。

词典网Dictionary.com表示，“pandemic”--也是它的年度词汇--是“2020年的决定性背景”。现在，像“social distancing（社交距离）”、“拉平曲线（flatten the curve）”和“herd immunity（群体免疫）”这样的术语不只是卫生专业人员使用--公众也能理解它们。

defining

可以理解为“最典型的；起决定性作用的，关键性的”，英文解释为“Something defining is essential to what something is. A defining moment in your life helps makes you what you are.”比如，defining moment 可以表示“转折点；决定性时刻；关键性事件”（the point at which a situation is clearly seen to start to change）举个🌰：

The end of the Cold War was a defining moment for the world in more ways than one.

从很多方面来讲，冷战的结束是世界的一个转折点。

群体免疫

群体免疫的英文：herd immunity. 其中，herd一词，我们此前在澳大利亚已射杀5000头骆驼一文中就提到，Helicopter-borne marksmen killed more than 5,000 camels in a five-day cull of feral herds. 这里的herd表示“兽群；牧群”，英文解释为“a large group of animals of the same type that live and feed together”，如：a herd of cattle/elephants/goats 一群牛/大象/山羊。

此处群体免疫中的herd指的是「人群；芸芸众生」，英文解释：a large group of people of the same type，如：普通百姓就是the common herd (= ordinary people)，随大流就是follow the herd.

此外，群体免疫也可以用：community immunity, population immunity, 或者social immunity.

📍详细阅读：什么是群体免疫？

"Specialized lingo, spanning topics from epidemiology to social behavior, formed a shared -- and ever-expanding -- glossary for daily life," the online dictionary said in its announcement.

“专门术语，涵盖了从流行病学到社会行为的主题，形成了一个共享的--并且不断扩大的--日常生活词汇表，”在线词典网站在其公告中说。

lingo

表示“隐语；行话，术语”，英文解释为“a type of language that contains a lot of unusual or technical expressions”如：internet lingo 因特网术语。

ever-

ever-表示“不断地；总是，始终”，英文解释为“continuously”，如：The ever-increasing demand 日益增长的需求。

glossary

glossary /ˈɡlɒsərɪ/ 表示“词汇表；难词汇编”，英文解释为“an alphabetical list, with meanings, of the words or phrases in a text that are difficult to understand”。

这两本词典还将“defund”（撤回资金/停止资助/停止拨款）列入了它们的年度词汇榜。乔治·弗洛伊德（George Floyd）在明尼阿波利斯（Minneapolis）被警方杀害后，这个词在6月份从警察部门撤回资金（defund the police）的呼声中得到了更广泛的关注。

defund

作动词，表示“停止支付；停止为…提供资金”，英文解释为“to stop providing the money to pay for something”举个🌰：

She opposes any proposal to defund the commission.

她反对任何停止为委员会提供资金的提议。

区分：

📍refund才是表示“退还；退（款）；偿付”（to give someone a refund），举个🌰：

When I went on business to Beijing, the office refunded my expenses.

我到北京出差，费用由事务所报销。

The rest of the words both dictionaries chose read like a monthly guide to the year that was. President Donald Trump's impeachment trial dominated Dictionary.com's first two months of the year. And Merriam-Webster honored the late Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash in January, by highlighting his nickname, "Mamba."

这两本字典所选的其余单词看起来就像这一年的月度指南一样。唐纳德·特朗普（Donald Trump）总统的弹劾审判案主导了Dictionary.com今年的前两个月。而韦氏词典为了纪念已故的科比·布莱恩特（Kobe Bryant），他在1月份逝于直升机坠毁事故，强调了他的绰号“曼巴”（Mamba）。

impeachment

表示“弹劾；控告”，英文解释为“The impeachment of a senior official is the process of charging them with a crime that makes them unfit for office. ”举个🌰：

There are grounds for impeachment.

有数个弹劾的理由。

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