谭词｜TOXIC——牛津年度之选
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The Oxford Word of the Year 2018 is…
牛津词典2018年度词汇新鲜出炉
TOXIC
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TOXIC
Poisonous; relating to or caused by poison; very bad, unpleasant, or harmful
有毒的；与毒物有关的或由毒物引起的；极坏的、非常不愉快的或极度有害的
The adjective toxic is defined as ‘poisonous’ and first appeared in English in the mid-seventeenth century from the medieval Latin toxicus, meaning ‘poisoned’ or ‘imbued with poison’.
形容词toxic定义为“有毒的”，17世纪中叶首次出现在英语中，来自中世纪拉丁语toxicus，意思是“有毒的”或“满是毒药的”。
But the word’s deadly history doesn’t start there. The medieval Latin term was in turn borrowed from the Latin toxicum, meaning ‘poison’, which has its origins in the Greek toxikon pharmakon – lethal poison used by the ancient Greeks for smearing on the points of their arrows. Interestingly, it is not pharmakon, the word for poison, that made the leap into Latin here, but toxikon, which comes from the Greek word for ‘bow’, toxon.
但是该词的致命史并非由此发端。这个中世纪拉丁词又来自拉丁语toxicum，意思是“毒药”，而这个拉丁词源自希腊语toxikon pharmakon——古希腊人涂在箭头的致命毒药。有趣的是，一跃而为拉丁语的并不是这个词组中的pharmakon（毒药之意），而是toxikon（来自希腊语的toxon，弓之意）。
Why was toxic chosen as Word of the Year?
The Oxford Word of the Year is a word or expression that is judged to reflect the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the passing year, and have lasting potential as a term of cultural significance.
当选“牛津年度词汇”的单词或表达被认为能反映过去一年的社会思潮、情绪或关切，并具有持久的文化意义。
In 2018, toxic added many strings to its poisoned bow becoming an intoxicating descriptor for the year’s most talked about topics. It is the sheer scope of its application, as found by our research, that made toxic the stand-out choice for the Word of the Year title.
2018年，toxic在毒弓上加了许多料（弦），由此成为今年最受关注的一些话题的迷人（intoxicating）描述符号。正如研究所发现的，正是该词应用范围之广使其成为“年度词汇”的不二之选。
Our data shows that, along with a 45% rise in the number of times it has been looked up on oxforddictionaries.com, over the last year the word toxic has been used in an array of contexts, both in its literal and more metaphorical senses.
研究数据表明，过去一年，toxic一词在牛津词典网站上的查阅次数增加了45%，该词应用广泛，被用在多种字面意思和隐喻中。
Drawn from our corpus, the top 10 toxic collocates for the year – that is, words habitually used alongside toxic – are indicative of this.
从我们的语料库中抽取的toxic本年度十大搭配词汇（即这些词通常与toxic一起用）就表明了这一点。
Top 10 ‘toxic’ collocates in 2018
2018年与toxic搭配的十大词汇
1. Chemical
2. Masculinity
3. Substance
4. Gas
5. Environment
6. Relationship
7. Culture
8. Waste
9. Algae
10. Air
Beyond the more usual substance warnings, this year toxic chemical has had particular significance as the nerve agent poisoning of a former Russian intelligence officer and his daughter in Britain sent shockwaves around the globe. Ongoing international attention to the case, including rising concern over who has access to the world’s toxic chemical stockpiles, ensured that ‘chemical’ topped the list of words most frequently seen alongside toxic in 2018.
除了更常见的物质警告，toxic今年还具有特别重要的意义，因为俄罗斯前情报官员及其女儿在英国中神经毒剂的事在全球引发震荡。国际上对此案持续关注，对拥有世界toxic chemical（有毒化学品）储备之人的担忧日益增加，这就确保了chemical一词成为今年与toxic搭配出现频次最高的词汇。
Similarly literal and deadly are toxic substance, toxic gas, and toxic waste, with the latter especially becoming a focal point as the US seeks to combat the spread of toxic waste in the wake of hurricanes and people speak out against businesses burning toxic waste, notably in India.
同样受人关注的还有字面上致命的toxic substance（有毒物质）、toxic gas（有毒废气）和toxic waste（有毒废物），后者尤其成为焦点，因为美国试图在飓风过后控制有毒废物的扩散，以及人们大声疾呼反对商业型焚烧有毒废物，特别是在印度。
This burning of toxic waste, resulting in the release of toxic gases, has been identified as one of a number of causes of toxic air. Air pollution has rapidly become a prime public health concern, and global attention reached a high in October 2018 when the World Health Organization published its report into the quality of air breathed by children worldwide. The report described this pollution as toxic air, plainly and potently signifying its poisonous nature, and with the aid of international media coverage, served to consolidate the association of toxicity and poor air quality in our lexicon.
焚烧toxic waste，会导致toxic gases的释放，这已被确定为造成toxic air（有毒空气）的诸多原因之一。空气污染已迅速成为首要的公共卫生问题，2018年10月，世界卫生组织发布了关于全世界儿童呼吸空气质量的报告，使全球对空气污染的关注度达到高峰。这份报告将这种污染描述为toxic air，明确有力地表明其有毒性质，国际媒体的报道帮助我们词典巩固了毒性和不良空气质量之间的联系。
Such pollutants are not only dangerous to our health, but to the health of our environment, and one of the many environmental issues discussed this year has been the toxic algae disaster in Florida, US. Thanks to a central role in the state’s Senate mid-terms race, toxic algae garnered so much commentary that ‘algae’ featured as the ninth-most frequently seen toxic collocate for 2018.
这些污染物不仅危害人类健康，而且危害生存环境——今年讨论的众多环境问题之一就是美国佛罗里达州的toxic algae（有毒藻类）灾难。由于在州参议院中期选举中扮演了核心角色，toxic algae获得了大量评论，使其成为2018年使用频率排名第九的toxic搭配词。
The term toxic environment itself, however, has been more frequently used in reference to harmful workplace environments and the toll this takes on the workforce’s mental health. From overly demanding workloads to outright sexual harassment, many companies have been exposed as crucibles for such toxic culture this year, which has seen mass walkouts at Google, the fashion mogul Philip Green disgraced, and the Speaker of the House of Commons accused of misusing his official powers to cover up allegations of bullying in Westminster.
不过，toxic environment（有毒环境）这个词本身更经常指代有害的工作环境，以及由此对员工心理健康造成的损害。从过高的工作量到彻头彻尾的性骚扰，许多公司今年都爆出此类toxic culture（有毒文化）而被放置在热锅上，有谷歌的大规模罢工、时尚大亨菲利普·格林的下台，还有英国下院议长被控滥用职权掩盖议会的欺凌指控。
Toxic relationships are not exclusive to the workplace, however, and whether its partners, parents, or even politicians, this year has seen so much discussion of ‘poisonous’ relationships across our society that ‘relationship’ is the sixth most-seen toxic topic for 2018. One reoccurring element in such discussions has been toxic masculinity.
toxic relationships（有毒人际关系）则并不局限于工作场所，不管是工作伙伴、父母还是政客，今年社会上有关“毒性”关系的讨论太多了，以至于relationship成为2018年第六大常见toxic话题。这种讨论中反复出现的一个因素就是toxic masculinity（有毒男性化）。
Our corpus data shows that, after ‘chemical’, ‘masculinity’ is the most-used word in conjunction with toxic this year. With the #MeToo movement putting a cross-industry spotlight on toxic masculinity, and watershed political events like the Brett Kavanaugh Senate judiciary committee hearing sparking international debate, the term toxic masculinity has well and truly taken root in the public consciousness and got people talking in 2018.
我们的语料库数据显示，masculinity是继chemical之后的今年第二大toxic搭配词。随着#MeToo运动的展开，各行各业都关注到toxic masculinity一词，还有像布雷特•卡瓦诺参院最高法院大法官提名听证会这样具有标志性意义的政治事件引发国际辩论，使得该词深深扎根于公众意识中，并在2018年流行起来。
（文字整理自“牛津词典”，图片来自网络）
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