韦氏词典2018年度词汇Justice

Racial justice. Obstruction of justice. Social justice. The Justice Department. Merriam-Webster has chosen “justice” as its 2018 word of the year, driven by the churning news cycle over months and months.

The word follows “toxic,” picked by Oxford Dictionaries, and “misinformation,” plucked by Dictonary.com.

Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at large, told The Associated Press ahead of last week’s announcement that “justice” consistently bubbled into the top 20 or 30 lookups on the company’s website, spiking at times due to specific events but also skating close to the surface for much of the year.

While it’s one of those common words people likely know how to spell and use correctly in a sentence, Sokolowski pointed to other reasons that drive search traffic. Among them is an attempt to focus a train of thought around a philosophical problem, or to seek aspirational motivation. Such well-known words are often among the most looked up every year, including those that are slightly abstract, including “love,” he said.

The designation for “justice” came soon after President Trump’s one-time fixer, Michael Cohen, was sentenced to three years in prison for crimes that included arranging the payment of hush money to conceal his boss’ alleged sexual affairs.

It also came ahead of a Senate vote on the “First Step Act,” a criminal justice reform bill with broad bipartisan support. Earlier in the year, Kim Kardashian West not once but twice paid a White House visit on Trump to discuss prison and sentencing reform. Sentencing for drug crimes, a loosening of cannabis laws, a Tesla probe: Justice will remain top of mind into the new year.

“These are stories that connect to the culture and to society across races, across classes,” Sokolowski said.

Searches for “justice” throughout the year, when compared to 2017, were up 74 percent on the site that has more than 100 million page views a month and nearly half a million entries, Sokolowski said.

To be word of the year worthy, an entry has to show both a high volume of traffic and a significant year-over-year increase in lookups.

Words to Learn

相关词汇

【封口费】fēngkǒu fèi

hush money money given to someone to make them keep something secret

【特约编辑】tèyuē biānjí

editor at large an editor or writer who contributes to a publication but is not part of the full-time staff

韦氏词典近日公布其2018年度词汇为justice（正义）。这是由于连月来有关种族正义、妨碍司法、社会正义、美国司法部的新闻不断涌现。

在此之前，牛津辞典选择的2018年度词汇是“toxic”（有毒的），Dictionary.com网站选择的是“misinformation”（虚假信息）。

在17日公布年度词汇之前，韦氏词典特约编辑彼得·索科洛夫斯基告诉美联社说，在即将过去的一年里，这个英文词汇持续成为韦氏词典网站上搜索量最高的20至30个单词之一，有时会因为特殊事件而排名提升，而在大部分时间里也位于前列。

虽然人们都知道justice这类常见词的拼写和用法，但索科洛夫斯基指出导致这个常见词搜索量上升还有一些其他原因。其中包括民众集中地对一个哲学问题进行思考，或是寻找动力来源。他说，一些为人熟知的词汇常常会位于每年的查询榜前列，包括有些抽象的词汇，例如“love”（爱）。

在韦氏词典年度词汇公布前不久，特朗普前私人律师迈克尔·科恩被判刑三年，被控的罪名包括向据称与特朗普有染的女性支付封口费。

美国参议院即将对“第一步法案”，即一项刑事司法改革法案投票，这一法案获得了广泛的两党支持。今年早些时候，金·卡戴珊曾两次前往白宫与特朗普讨论监狱和刑期改革。另外，有关毒品犯罪的量刑、放松对大麻的法律，一项对特斯拉的调查，等等，会让justice在明年仍然热门。

索科洛夫斯基说：“这些故事有关文化，跨越种族和社会阶层。”

索科洛夫斯基表示，与2017年相比，韦氏词典网站上justice一词的全年搜索量增加了74%。该网站为近50万个单词提供英文释义，每月页面浏览量超过1亿。

他说，要成为年度词汇，一个词汇的搜索量不仅数量要大，还要有明显的年增长。

(Chinadaily.com.cn)