韋氏詞典和Dictionary.com2020年度詞彙公布

在新詞層出不窮的2020年，卻有一個詞同時被韋氏詞典和Dictionary.com（詞典網）選為年度詞彙，這個詞就是pandemic（大流行病）。

11月30日，兩家美國詞典公司宣布了同一個年度詞彙「大流行病」，這還是史上第一次。
此前，牛津英詞詞典發表了一份2020年語言報告，認為2020年的挑戰是：brought a new immediacy and urgency to the role of the lexicographer. In almost real-time, lexicographers were able to monitor and analyze seismic shifts in language data and precipitous frequency rises in new coinages給詞典編纂者帶來了一種新的即時性和緊迫性；詞典編纂者幾乎是實時監測和分析語言數據的突然變化和新詞陡增的頻率。於是，該出版社給出了一個結論，即由於新冠疫情造成了語言的巨大變化，「2020年不能用一個年度詞彙來概括」（2020 is a year which cannot be neatly accommodated in one single 『word of the year』）。不過，對於美國韋氏詞典和Dictionary.com網站而言，它們認同與疫情相關詞彙發生的巨大變化，卻不同意牛津英語詞典出版社的一觀點。
韋氏詞典的特邀編輯皮特·索科洛夫斯基說，pandemic一詞的當選「很可能並沒有讓人大吃一驚」（probably isn’t a big shock） ：Often the big news story has a technical word that’s associated with it and in this case, the word pandemic is not just technical but has become general. It’s probably the word by which we』ll refer to this period in the future.重大新聞報導往往含有與大流行病相關的術語，在這種情況下，大流行病不只是一個術語，而是具有更普遍的意義。它很可能會成為將來我們指代這段時期的詞語。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 Dictionary.com高級調研編輯約翰·凱利（John Kelly）表示，searches for 「pandemic」 spiked more than 13,500% on 11 March, the day the World Health Organization declared an outbreak of the novel coronavirus a global health emergency.世界衛生組織在3月11日宣布新冠肺炎暴發成為全球衛生緊急事件後，對「大流行病」一詞的搜索量在當天暴增超13500%。The spike was 「massive, but even more telling is how high [pandemic] has sustained significant search volumes throughout the entire year」.搜索量漲幅「很高，但更能說明問題的是該詞在全年都保持著極高的搜索量」。Month over month, lookups for pandemic were up more than 1,000%. For about half the year, the word was in the top 10% of all lookups on Dictionary.com自那以後的每一個月，對「大流行病」的搜索量漲幅都超過了1000%。半年來，該詞在Dictionary.com上的搜索量一直排在前10%。

 

類似的情況也出現在韋氏詞典的網站上。索科洛夫斯基稱，At Merriam-Webster.com, searches for 「pandemic」 on 11 March were 115,806% higher than spikes experienced on the same date last year, Sokolowski said.在韋氏詞典的網站上，「大流行病」一詞在3月11日的搜索量漲幅比去年同期高出了115806%。Pandemic, with roots in Latin and Greek, is a combination of 「pan」, for all, and 「demos」, for people or population. The latter is also the root of 「democracy」.pandemic（大流行病）一詞詞根源於拉丁語和希臘語，是pan（全部）和demos（人或人口）的組合。demos還是democracy（民主）一詞的詞根。英語中的 「pandemic」 （大流行病）一詞要追溯到17世紀中期，當時被廣泛使用的意思是「普遍的」（universal），在中世紀大瘟疫後特指17世紀60年代醫學文本中的疾病。凱利指出，疫情期間「aerosol」（氣溶膠）、「contact tracing」（接觸者追蹤）、「social distancing」（社交隔離）和「herd immunity」（群體免疫）等詞以及救命的各種複雜的治療藥物、檢測和疫苗詞彙的搜索量都出現了增長。凱利、索科洛夫斯基和牛津語言還指出了2020年的其他搜索趨勢。凱利稱，在今年五月喬治·弗洛伊德死於明尼阿波裡斯市警察的膝蓋下後，和種族平等有關的詞彙搜索量大增，包括「fascism」（法西斯主義）、「anti-fascism」（反法西斯主義）、「defund」（停止撥款）和「white fragility」（白人脆弱性）。此外，德國語言協會也於當日宣布德國2020年年度德語詞彙為「新冠大流行」（Corona-Pandemie）。德國語言協會稱，年度詞彙是德國社會熱點的反映，今年德國人的生活遭新冠疫情重創，「新冠大流行」是一整年裡人們最關注的話題之一，而排名第二到第十的年度德語詞彙也幾乎全與新冠疫情有關。

The word was largely ignored as the year began, but that changed on January 20th, with the announcement of the first U.S. case of COVID-19. The largest spike in lookups came on March 19th; overall, coronavirus was looked up a staggering 162,551% more this year than in 2019.The current pandemic is caused by a new, or novel, type of coronavirus dubbed COVID-19 in February. The name stands for 「coronavirus disease 2019,」 and was added to our dictionary in a special release of new words in March, giving COVID-19 the distinction of being the fastest term to go from coinage to inclusion in a Merriam-Webster dictionary—the process took only 34 days.Protests in response to the killing of Black people by police officers punctuated the year, and a word from those protests rose in lookups beginning in June: defund. The word was key in the many conversations about how to address police violence, as activists called for the defunding of police forces, and others tried to understand what that in practicality would mean. Overall, defund was looked up 6,059% more in 2020 than in 2019.We define defund as 「to withdraw funding from.」 The word is a recent addition to English, in use only since the middle of the 20th century.In January, the world lost one of basketball’s greats: Kobe Bryant, along with nine other people including one of Bryant’s daughters, died in a helicopter crash. As news of the crash spread, dictionary users searched for a word strongly associated with the player: mamba. 「Black Mamba,」 he was called—a nickname the player had chosen for himself more than a decade before.Mamba refers to 「any of several chiefly arboreal venomous green or black elapid snakes (genus Dendroaspis) of sub-Saharan Africa,」 and comes from the Zulu word imamba. The black mamba in particular is very fast, and very deadly.Mamba spiked in lookups on the day of Bryant’s tragic death, with users looking up the word 42,750% more than is typical; the next day that number had increased to 66,366%. Overall, mamba was looked up 934% more frequently in 2020 than it had been in 2019.On July 23rd, Seattle’s brand-new National Hockey League franchise chose 「Kraken」 as its team name, hurling the word kraken into top lookup territory. Searches for the word increased 128,000% that day.As the reality of the global pandemic set in, policy responses received as much attention as medical analyses of this new disease. Accordingly, the biggest increase in lookups for one of the most important terms in this new circumstance, quarantine, was on March 20th, nine days after the greatest spike for pandemic.Quarantine means 「a state of enforced isolation designed to prevent the spread of disease.」 As with pandemic, there was interest in this word before the stay-at-home orders became a reality in the U.S., with February’s reports of outbreaks on cruise ships in early February in the news triggering lookups. Quarantine was looked up 1,856% more frequently in 2020 than in 2019.The word antebellum was looked up in significantly higher numbers for two distinct reasons in 2020. The first jump in lookups came in June, when an award-winning musical trio announced a name change: 「Lady Antebellum」 would now officially be called 「Lady A.」 The second increase came with the September release of a movie that uses the word as its title. These two events made for a year-over-year increase in lookups of 885%.Antebellum comes from Latin ante bellum, meaning 「before the war.」 We define the English word in a two-part definition: the word can mean simply 「existing before a war,」 but it is especially used to specifically mean 「existing before the American Civil War.」 Schadenfreude is a word-lover’s word, one that pops up in spelling bees and vocabulary tests all the time. This is partly because it’s hard to spell, and partly because it’s fun to say out loud, although its pronunciation isn’t necessarily easy to discern for an English speaker. But this word is perhaps also popular among wordies because of its specific and slightly malicious meaning: 「enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others.」 It had a spike in lookups in March when news of the collegiate admissions scandal broke, but the biggest single spike this year took place on October 2nd, when it was announced that President Trump had contracted the novel coronavirus. Such uses created a spike of 24,800% compared to last year's lookups.Following the announcement of President Trump’s loss to Joe Biden, the word again returned to a high spot in our list.In this year when the public’s mind has so often been focused on COVID-19, the word asymptomatic is a reminder of one of the coronavirus』 most challenging characteristics—that people who are without symptoms can be contagious.The word asymptomatic was looked up 1,688% more this year than it typically is. We define the word as 「presenting no symptoms of disease.」 When all was said and done in 2020, the word irregardless had earned a spot in the Words of the Year pantheon—mostly just by having the temerity to be a word. While some will deem the word’s presence in this list as further evidence of how truly odious the year was, we in the dictionary business know that the word qualified for inclusion here because people care about language, and that’s worth celebrating.Lookups for irregardless increased dramatically in July, up 464%, when actress Jamie Lee Curtis asserted on Twitter that we had just entered the word. Other celebrities tweeted about the word as well, helping to boost irregardless into a level of lookup significance that we couldn’t ignore.Among those lost in a year of many painful losses were two individuals whose life’s work persisted long after they』d earned a restful retirement. As writers sought to eulogize first Representative John Lewis in July, and then Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September, they called upon the word icon to do so. The word saw significant increases in lookups in both instances, averaging 2,205% higher than last year.A person who is identified as an icon is successful and admired, and frequently also representative of some ideal. Like many human icons, the word’s beginning was a modest one: in earliest use it referred simply to an image. Presidents can propel a word into the common vernacular—or at least the public eye. Ronald Reagan’s verbal tic of beginning responses with 「Well…」 and George W. Bush’s malapropism misunderestimated qualify, and President-e lect Joe Biden’s use of malarkey is on track to do the same.Biden used malarkey several times during the vice-presidential debate with Paul Ryan in October 2012, sending many people to the dictionary to look the word up. The word’s biggest increase in lookups in 2020 was when Biden used it during the presidential debate on October 22nd, when it spiked 3,200% over last year.

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