“存在主义”获选词典网站2019年度词汇

Climate change, gun violence, the very nature of democracy and an angry little movie star called Forky helped propel “existential” to Dictionary.com’s word of the year.

The choice reflects months of high-stakes threats and crises, real and pondered, across the news, the world and throughout 2019.

“In our data, it speaks to this sense of grappling with our survival, both literally and figuratively, that defined so much of the discourse,” said John Kelly, senior research editor for the site, ahead of Monday’s announcement.

The word earned top-of-mind awareness in sustained searches at Dictionary.com in the aftermath of wildfires and Hurricane Dorian and mass shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand and El Paso, Texas. It also reared itself in politics and pop culture, including Forky the white plastic spork who was the breakout star of “Toy Story 4.”

The soiled utensil is convinced his destiny is in the trash, until he embraces his purpose as a treasured toy of kindergartener Bonnie.

“Forky underscores how this sense of grappling can also inspire us to ask big questions about who we are, about our purpose,” Kelly said.

Oxford Dictionaries picked “climate emergency” as its word of the year, noting usage evidence that reflects the “ethos, mood or preoccupations of the passing year,” the company said in a statement.

Dictionary.com crunches lookup and other data to decide which word to anoint each year. The site has been picking a word of the year since 2010.

Among search spikes for “existential” were those that occurred after both Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders and 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg characterized climate change as an “existential” crisis, Kelly said.

Another spike occurred when former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden painted President Donald Trump as an “existential threat” to decency.

The word dates to 1685, deriving from Late Latin’s “existentialis.” Dictionary.com defines existential as “of or relating to existence” and “of, relating to, or characteristic of philosophical existentialism; concerned with the nature of human existence as determined by the individual’s freely made choices.”

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【匙叉】shíchā

spork a spoon-shaped eating utensil with short tines at the tip

【加持】

jiāchí

anoint consecrate or make sacred in a ceremony that includes the token applying of oil

气候变化、枪支暴力、民主的本质和忧心忡忡的电影小明星“玩具叉叉”使“存在主

义”一词获选词典网站Dictionary.com 2019年度词汇。这个选择反映出数月以来的高风险威胁和危机，真实存在且引人深思，遍及新闻界和整个世界，贯穿2019全年。

该网站的高级研究编辑约翰•凯利在周一发布年度词汇之前表示：“在我们的数据中，这个选择体现了一种与生存抗争的意识，无论是字面上还是象征意义上，界定了很多讨论。”

在森林大火、飓风“多里安”、新西兰基督城和美国德克萨斯州埃尔帕索的大规模枪击事件之后，“存在主义”一词在词典网站Dictionary.com的搜索量一直居高不下，成为人们最关注的焦点。这一词汇也在政治和流行文化中崭露头角，包括《玩具总动员4》中脱颖而出的明星 —— 白色塑料“玩具叉叉”。这个被弄脏的餐具确信自己注定会被丢进垃圾桶，直到成为幼儿园小朋友邦妮珍爱的玩具，才接纳了自己的使命。凯利表示，“叉叉的故事告诉我们，这种抗争意识也能激发我们思考一些重大问题，比如我们是谁，我们生活的目的是什么。”

该公司在一份声明中称，牛津词典将“气候紧急状态”选为今年的年度词汇，并指出人们使用这个词汇的证据能反映“过去一年的社会思潮、情绪或关注点”。词典网站Dictionary.com通过分析查找和其他数据来决定当年的年度词汇。该网站自2010年开始评选年度词汇。

凯利说，一部分“存在主义”的搜索高峰是在美国民主党总统候选人伯尼•桑德斯和16岁的气候活动家格里塔•腾贝格将气候变化描述为存在危机之后出现的。

另一次搜索高峰出现在美国前副总统乔•拜登将总统唐纳德•特朗普描述为对于体面的“事实存在的威胁”之后。

这个词可以追溯到1685年，源于后期拉丁语existentialis。词典网站Dictionary.com将存在主义定义为“存在的或与存在有关的”，或“存在主义哲学的，与存在主义哲学有关的，或具有存在主义哲学特征的；关注由个人自由选择所决定的人类存在的本质”。

(chinadaily.com.cn)