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Mouse potatoes joined couch potatoes, google officially became a verb and drama queens finally found the limelight when they crossed over from popular culture to mainstream English language. The mouse potato (who spends as much time on the computer as his/her 1990s counterpart did on the couch), the himbo (attractive, vacuous -- and male) and the excessively emotional drama queen were among 100 new words added to the 2006 update of America's best-selling dictionary, the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. The Internet search engine Google also found its way into the dictionary for the first time as a verb, meaning to find information quickly on the world wide web. New words and phrases from the fields of science, technology, pop culture and industry are chosen each year by Merriam-Webster's team of editors after months of poring over books, magazines and even food labels. "They are not tracking verbal language. They are looking for evidence that words have become assimilated into the written English language," said Arthur Bicknell, senior publicist with Merriam-Webster. "Unfortunately with slang words by the time it has become assimilated it probably isn't cool anymore." Bicknell said. Other words making their debut this year were soul patch (a small growth of beard under a man's lower lip), unibrow (two eyebrows joining together) and supersize -- the fast food industry phrase for extra large meals. The technology world contributed ringtones (changeable incoming cellphone call signals) and spyware (software installed in a computer to surreptiously track a user's activities) while biodiesel and avian influenza came from the world of science. America's first dictionary -- Noah Webster's A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language -- was published 200 years ago and also introduced a crop of fresh words that have now become familiar. Those "new" words in 1806 included slang, surf, psychology and, naturally, Americanize. |
Mouse potato（网虫）跟couch potato（电视虫）走到一起；google正式成为一个动词；drama queen（小题大做、大惊小怪的人）终于得到关注。这些词语终于登堂入室，从通俗文化行列转入英语主流语言。 Mouse potato（“网虫”，像20世纪90年代的电视迷一样迷恋电脑的人）、himbo（徒有外表却无内涵的男人）、过分情绪化的drama queen等100个新词被收入2006年新版的美国畅销词典《韦氏大词典》中。 互联网搜索引擎Google也首次作为动词入选词典，意思是"在互联网上快速查找信息"。 每年，《韦氏大词典》的编委都要花上几个月的时间在书、杂志、甚至食品标签中搜罗，选出科学、技术、通俗文化及工业领域的一些新词和短语收入词典。 《韦氏大词典》高级推介人亚瑟·比克内尔说：“编辑们搜罗的目标不是口头语言，他们找的是那些已被用于书面语的词汇，而且要有实例为证。” 比克内尔说：“不幸的是，那些已被书面语吸收的俚语可能就不再那么'酷'了。” 今年入选词典的新词还有soul patch（男人下唇上长的一小撮胡子）、unibrow（左右眉毛长在一起）和supersize（超大型快餐）。 技术领域的新词有ringtone（手机铃音）和spyware（安装在电脑上用于监视用户活动的间谍软件）；科学领域的新词则包括biodiesel（生物柴油）和avian influenza（禽流感）。 美国第一部词典--诺亚·韦伯斯特先生的《简明英语词典》于200年前出版，当时收入其中的一批新词如今已为大家十分熟悉了。 那些于1806年入选的“新词”包括slang（俚语）、surf（冲浪）以及naturally（自然地）、Americanize（美国化）。 |
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