韦氏词典公布2019年度词汇：They

LearnAndRecord 2022-07-26

此前，牛津词典公布2019年度词汇：Climate Emergency，剑桥词典公布2019年度词汇：upcycling，柯林斯词典公布2019年度词汇：Climate strike.

近日，另一个大词典，韦氏（Merriam-Webster）词典公布其2019年度词汇：They.

‘They’ Is the Word of the Year, Merriam-Webster Says, Noting Its Singular Rise

韦氏词典2019年度词汇：they

The New York Times

A surge in searches for the definition of an old-school pronoun signals a new, nonbinary meaning.

surge

1）可以作动词也可以作名词，表示“剧增”，英文解释为“A surge is a sudden large increase in something that has previously been steady, or has only increased or developed slowly. If something surges, it increases suddenly and greatly, after being steady or developing only slowly.”举个🌰：

Specialists see various reasons for the recent surge in inflation.

专家认为最近通货膨胀加剧有各种原因。

The electoral support surged from just under 10 percent to nearly 17 percent.

选举支持率从只有不到10%剧增到近17%。

2）表示“涌动”，英文解释为“If a crowd of people surge forward, they suddenly move forward together.”举个🌰：

The photographers and cameramen surged forward.

那些摄影和摄像师们涌向前去。

old-school

表示“老派的，守旧的”，英文解释为“old-fashioned, or relating to ideas from the past”举个🌰：

He was one of the last old-school comics.

他是最后一代老派的喜剧演员之一。

pronoun

表示“代词”，英文解释为：A pronoun is a word that you use to refer to someone or something when you do not need to use a noun, often because the person or thing has been mentioned earlier. Examples are "it," "she," "something," and "myself."

personal/demonstrative/interrogative/possessive/relative pronouns

人称/指示/疑问/物主/关系代词

nonbinary

binary本身表示“二进制的”（The binary system expresses numbers using only the two digits 0 and 1. It is used especially in computing.）在计算机的世界里，处理的实际上都是0和1这两个数字。

此处binary表示“二元的；有两个不同部分的”，英文解释为“Binary describes something that has two different parts.”

nonbinary就是表示“非二元的”，引申为“非二元性别的”，也被广泛称作Genderqueer（性别酷儿），用来指称那些超越传统意义上对男性或女性的二元划分、不单纯属于男性或女性的自我性别认同。此前纽约时报的有一篇文章专门讲述了Nonbinary一词：

“Washington, D.C., schools are the latest, with a small change on the public school enrollment form for next year that some members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community regard as a big step forward: The term “nonbinary,” which refers to people who do not identify exclusively as male or female, will be included as a gender choice.”

“华盛顿特区的学校对明年的公立学校入学表格做出了一个小改动：“非二元性别的”——意指那些性别认同不单纯属于男性或女性的人，被加入到性别选择中。这是被一些L.G.B.T.Q.群体成员认为是一大进步的最新例子。”

Merriam-Webster announced the pronoun “they” as its word of the year on Tuesday, marking the rise of the use of the venerable plural pronoun to refer to a single person whose gender identity is nonbinary.

周二，韦氏词典宣布人称代词they（他们/她们）为年度词汇，这标志着越来越多人使用这个古老的复数人称代词，来指代性别认同非二元的个人。

venerable

venerable /ˈvɛnərəbəl/ 1）表示“（因历史悠久而）神圣庄严的”，英文解释为“Something that is venerable is impressive because it is old or important historically.”举个🌰：

May Day has become a venerable institution.

国际劳动节已经成为一个神圣庄严的既定节日。

2）表示“（因年高或睿智）令人尊敬的”，英文解释为“A venerable person deserves respect because they are old and wise.”举个🌰：

Her Chinese friends referred to the empress as their venerable ancestor.

她的中国朋友们称那位皇后是令他们尊敬的祖先。

The word of the year, the dictionary publisher said, is based on data: Searches for the definition of “they” on the publisher’s website and apps increased by 313 percent in 2019 over the previous year. Last year’s word was “justice.” In 2017, it was “feminism.”

该词典称，年度词汇是基于数据选出的：2019年，韦氏词典网站和应用程序中，they的词义搜索量比去年增加了313％。去年的年度词汇是justice（正义），2017年则是feminism（女权主义）。

The public's interest in words is often driven by major news events, said Peter Sokolowski, an editor-at-large at Merriam-Webster. Other words that generated high year-over-year comparisons this year — “quid pro quo” and “impeachment” — are tied to political headlines.

韦氏词典总编辑彼得·索科洛夫斯基(Peter Sokolowski)说，公众对词汇的兴趣通常是由重大新闻事件驱动的。今年其他一些获得了较高搜索量的词语包括quid pro quo（交换条件）和impeachment（弹劾），这些都与政治头条新闻相关。

But a surge of searches for the meaning of a utilitarian word like “they” is less common. It is likely to reflect both curiosity and confusion about the growing use of the pronoun for nonbinary individuals.

但像they这样的实用性词语获得搜索热潮并不常见。它可能反映出人们对越来越多使用非二元人群的代词产生的好奇和困惑。

utilitarian

1）表示“（物体、建筑等）实用的”，英文解释为“Utilitarian objects and buildings are designed to be useful rather than attractive.”举个🌰：

His office is utilitarian and unglamorous.

他的办公室实用而素淡。

2）表示“功利主义的”，英文解释为“Utilitarian means based on the idea that the morally correct course of action is the one that produces benefit for the greatest number of people.”举个🌰：

It was Tom who was the best publicist for utilitarian ideas.

汤姆才是功利主义思想的最佳宣传家。

Many Americans, especially older ones, stumble over the use of “they” as a singular pronoun. “For those who haven't kept up, the complaint is this,” Merriam-Webster wrote in an earlier blog post on the topic. “The use of they as a gender-neutral pronoun (as in, ‘Ask each of the students what they want for lunch.’) is ungrammatical because they is a plural pronoun.”

许多美国人，尤其是年长的美国人在发现人们把they用作单数人称代词时，会感到有些困惑。“对于那些没有跟上形势的人，他们会这样抱怨，”韦氏词典在一篇博客文章中写道。“将they用作不特指性别的代词是不合语法的，因为they是复数代词。”

stumble over

1）stumble本义表示“踉跄；绊脚”，英文解释为“If you stumble, you put your foot down awkwardly while you are walking or running and nearly fall over.”举个🌰：

He stumbled and almost fell.

他绊了一下，差点儿摔倒。

2）表示“犯错；磕磕巴巴地说，支吾；不顺畅地演奏”，英文解释为“to make a mistake, such as repeating something or pausing for too long, while speaking or playing a piece of music”举个🌰：

When the poet stumbled over a line in the middle of a poem, someone in the audience corrected him.

诗人在朗诵一首诗的过程中念错了一句，听众中有人纠正了他。

But for nonbinary individuals who identify as a gender other than male or female, being referred to as “he” or “she” is inaccurate. Over a third of Americans in their teens and early 20s know someone who uses gender-neutral pronouns, according to a Pew Research survey conducted last fall. That is double the number of those in their 40s, and triple those in their 50s and 60s.

但是对于那些性别认同非二元的个人来说，被称为“他”或“她”是不准确的。皮尤研究中心(Pew Research)去年秋天进行的一项调查显示，超过三分之一的美国青少年和20出头的年轻人认识使用性别中立代词的人。这个数字是40岁左右的人的两倍，是50和60岁人的三倍。

Efforts to destigmatize other gender identities have sparked the disclosure of pronouns on social media profiles and email signatures. Some state and city governments have recently added an “X” option for nonbinary genders on state identification documents, which used to be limited to the options “M” and “F.” And amid efforts this year in at least six states to make the practice law, state legislators have been grappling with the singular “they,” The New York Times reported.

为其他性别认同正名的努力触发了社交媒体资料和电子邮件签名上出现的新代词。最近，一些州和市政府在身份文件中为非二元性别者添加了“X”选项，该选项以前只有“M”（男性）和“F”（女性）。此外，据《纽约时报》报道，今年至少有六个州的立法者在司法实践中努力促成单数they的使用。

destigmatize

stigma表示“耻辱；羞辱”，加上“-tize”动词后缀，表示“侮辱”，英文解释为“If someone or something is stigmatized, they are unfairly regarded by many people as being bad or having something to be ashamed of.”举个🌰：

Children in single-parent families must not be stigmatized.

单亲家庭的孩子不应该受到侮辱。

再加上“de-”这个否定前缀，表示“去除污名；为...正名”。

grapple

1）表示“努力解决（问题）”，英文解释为“If you grapple with a problem or difficulty, you try hard to solve it.”举个🌰：

The economy is just one of several critical problems the country is grappling with.

经济只是该国正在努力解决的几个关键问题之一。

2）表示“与…扭打”，英文解释为“If you grapple with someone, you take hold of them and struggle with them, as part of a fight. You can also say that two people grapple.”举个🌰：

He was grappling with an alligator in a lagoon.

他当时正与环礁湖里的一只鳄鱼搏斗。

Merriam-Webster added the singular “they” for a person with a nonbinary gender as a definition of the word in its dictionary, noting that the use of the singular “they” to refer to nonbinary individuals is increasingly common in published, edited text, as well as on social media.

韦氏词典在其词条中为they添加了单数人称代词的定义，用来指拥有非二元性别的人，并指出在出版、编辑和社交媒体中，使用单数they来指非二元性别个人的现象越来越常见。

To illustrate, the dictionary cited a passage from a recent Times article:

为了详细说明这一点，韦氏词典引用了《纽约时报》最近的一篇文章：

I knew certain things about … the person I was interviewing … They had adopted their gender-neutral name a few years ago, when they began to consciously identify as nonbinary — that is, neither male nor female. They were in their late 20s, working as an event planner, applying to graduate school.

in one's late 20s

late形容词，表示“接近末期；在晚年”，英文解释为“near the end of a period of time, a person's life, etc.”，如：in the late afternoon 傍晚，in late summer 夏末，举个🌰：

She married in her late twenties (= when she was 28 or 29) .

她快三十岁时才结婚。

On Tuesday, Merriam-Webster cited several 2019 news events to explain the curiosity that appears to have driven searches for “they.” During a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Representative Pramila Jayapal noted that “they” is her child's pronoun; the singer Sam Smith announced that their pronouns are “they” and “them”; and the American Psychological Association recommended that singular “they” be used in academic writing to refer to a person whose gender is unknown or who uses it.

周二，韦氏词典援引2019年的几则新闻来解释促使人们搜索they一词的好奇心。在众议院司法委员会的一次听证会上，议员普拉米拉·贾亚帕(Pramila Jayapal)表示，they是她孩子的代词。歌手山姆·史密斯(Sam Smith)宣布其代词是they和them。美国心理学会(American Psychological Association)建议在学术写作中使用单数形式的they来指代性别未知者，或那些自己使用they的人。

“As a word lover, what's interesting in this story is to see that social factors play so directly into language change,” Mr. Sokolowski said. “That is something that we sort of know intuitively but we don't often see it as clearly as we see it here.”

“作为一个语言爱好者，这个事情中有趣的是我们目睹了社会因素直接影响语言的转变，”索科洛夫斯基说。“这种影响我们大概凭直觉就能知道，但很少能像在这件事中看到的那么清晰。”

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