揭秘：韦氏词典是怎样收录历年新词？

During last year’s presidential debates, and through this year’s inauguration, Merriam-Webster has been an active presence on Twitter, sharing words experiencing an uptick in search, or funny, relevanttrivia.

在去年总统竞选辩论以及今年的就职典礼期间，韦氏词典一直在推特上很活跃，分享着那些搜索量增加的词汇或是一些相关趣事。

You might even say the dictionary provided a safe space on social media, or “a place (as on a college campus) intended to be free of bias, conflict, criticism, or potentially threatening actions, ideas, or conversations.”

你可能会说这本词典在互联网上提供了一个安全空间，或“一个(像大学校园一样的)场所，(那里)没有偏见、冲突、指责，或是潜在的危险活动，可以自由地交流思想或进行对话。”

It’s fitting, then, that “safe space” is among the 1,000 new additions Merriam-Webster made to its online dictionary today. The word was first used in 1970, and has been used by colleges post-election to describe themselves as campuses that will protect students who might feel in danger due to their religious beliefs, sexual orientation, race or gender.

后来，韦氏词典就把“safe space”(安全空间)这个词收录到现今在线词典的1000个新增词条中，这也是十分恰当的。1970年，这个词被第一次使用，大选后，大学就用这个词来称自己为“保护那些因个人宗教信仰、性取向、种族或性别而感到危险的学生的校园”。

Not all of the added words have been around for decades. Some of them, like “binge-watch” and “photobomb,” are products of newer technologies, but saw big spikes in recent use.

不是所有的新增词汇都已使用了几十年。像“binge-watch”(刷剧)和“photobomb”(照片炸弹)这样的一些词汇是新兴技术的产物，而最近其使用率迅速增长。

In an announcement, Merriam-Webster explained its methodology: “In some cases, terms have been observed for years and are finally being added; in others, the fast rise and broad acceptance of a term has made for a quicker journey.”

在一则声明中，韦氏词典解释了它的方法论：“在某些情况下，一些词被观察多年，最后被收录到新词中;在其他情况下，一个词，其使用率迅速增长，且被广泛接受，这个词就会更快地被收入词典中。”

In a statement to The Huffington Post, Merriam-Webster’s editor-at-large Peter Sokolowski added that the words announced today were added to the dictionary’s digital pages. “The online dictionary gives us both more space to expand entries and a way to add them more quickly,” he said.

在发给赫芬顿邮报的一则声明中，韦氏词典的特约编辑彼得·索科洛夫斯基补充道，如今发表的新词被添加到字典的数字页面中。“在线词典既为我们提供了更多的空间来扩展词条，又为我们提供了一个迅速补充词条的方法。”

Other entries are updates of pre-existing words, such as “ghost” used as an informal verb, and “train wreck” used metaphorically to describe “an utter disaster or mess.”

其他词条是对现有词汇的更新，如“ghost”(悄悄地行进)这个词被用作一个非正式的动词，而“train wreck”则被比喻为“一场彻底的灾难或混乱”。

The new additions come from medicine, sports, literature, fashion, politics and technology. One even comes from the name of a prolific word inventor ― “Seussian,” meaning “suggestive of the works of Dr. Seuss.”

新增词汇出自医药、运动、文学、时尚、政治以及技术领域。甚至还有一个词汇出自一个富有创造力的词汇发明家的名字，“Seussian”，意为“瑟斯博士提出的词汇”。