语言大师-2004年在线词典词汇搜索前10名

Top 10 Words Looked Up Online in 2004

 

For years, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary has been one of the most popular and authoritative¹ dictionaries of the American language in use -- even when it was just in book form. Today, the company's online dictionary is visited hundreds of thousands of times each month over the Internet. Because its website records the words people want to know, Merriam-Webster is able to compile a ranking of what's hot and what's not in American speech. Peter Sokolowski is an editor of that company.

 

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: The most commonly looked up words every day of the year are words that are often easily confused or have definition that are a little bit tricky² - words like paradigm³, which means the plan or a typical example of something, or serendipity⁴, which means a fortunate or lucky event or moment. Or words that are easily confused with each other such as affect and effect, which are both nouns and verbs.

 

Merriam-Webster has just announced 2004's ten most frequently looked-up words. Mr. Sokolowski says that, taken together, they offer a sense of what really mattered in the public sphere.

 

The news from Iraq, for example, prompted many people to look up the word insurgent⁵. It means "a person who revolts against civil authority or an established government; especially a rebel not recognized as a belligerent⁶." Insurgent ranked number four on the Merriam- Webster list. The editor notes that U.S. domestic news also played a big role in 2004.

 

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: We have the word incumbent⁷ which means a person who holds an office -- a political office -- and the world electoral, which refers to the process of electing a public official. And those two words obviously were very popular this year because of the American presidential election.

 

Words for natural phenomena⁹ were among the big winners this year. Peter Sokolowski points to cicada, which is the type of insect that infested¹⁰ eastern North America this past summer, and hurricane -- 2004's fifth most popular "look-up" word.

 

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: That is a word that everyone knows the meaning of. It is a storm -- a very violent storm -- of a kind that is typically found in the Atlantic Ocean. And it affected¹¹ America particularly this past year.

 

Mr. Sokolowski offers two reasons why so many people might have looked up this quite familiar word.

 

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: One is that it is spelled with two R's, and often, words that have two consonants¹² next to each other are words that people are a little insecure about the spelling. Part of the problem with English is, of course, that we do not have an orthographic¹³ pronunciation, which is to say that words are not always pronounced the way they are spelled. That, right there, is a huge part of why people look up words. And also I think people like the definition of hurricane because it gives the actual wind speed that a hurricane requires, [which is] 119 kilometers an hour or greater. So that is an official definition, and I think that's one reason people look the word up.

 

Peloton, a French word meaning the main body of riders in a bicycle race, clocked in at number seven on Merriam-Webster's list in 2004. Mr. Sokolowski says that's due to Lance Armstrong, the American cyclist who won the Tour de France race again this year.

 

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: What is interesting about peloton is, it's the second time that word has come into English in 300 years. In the 1600s, the word platoon entered English - to mean a group of men, often soldiers. And that word is a very popular English word, especially in military circles. And now, peloton has come into English. They are really the same word but with different meanings.

 

The number one most popular word on the Merriam Webster site was blog. It's one of a host of new Internet and computer-related words that are now officially mainstream¹⁴.

 

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: And blog is the latest. In fact, it's the newest in the dictionary. Blog is short for Web log -- that is, Internet log. And we define it as “a website that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks¹⁵ provided by the writer.” Blog really entered the language in 1999. That's the first time we found the word used in print. But then we had to wait and see if that word would become very generally accepted and understood, and this past year, especially with the Presidential election and the folks who wrote blogs for political commentary, they found themselves being reported in the mainstream press. That's when the word got into the dictionary. It's just going in now. It'll be in print in the spring.

 

Other words that made the top ten list include partisan¹⁶, meaning “a firm adherent¹⁷ to a party, faction¹⁸, cause or person,” and sovereignty, meaning “supreme¹⁹ power, especially over a body politic⁸” or “freedom from external control.”

 

The biggest surprise on the top ten list may be defenestration, which means "a throwing of a person or thing out of a window." Listeners are free to speculate for themselves about why that word was so popular in 2004. Editor Peter Sokolowski did not say.

 

For Wordmaster, this is Adam Phillips reporting from New York.

1 authoritative   

adj.有权威的，可相信的；命令式的；官方的

参考例句：

• David speaks in an authoritative tone.大卫以命令的口吻说话。
• Her smile was warm but authoritative.她的笑容很和蔼，同时又透着威严。

2 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

3 paradigm   

n.例子，模范，词形变化表

参考例句：

• He had become the paradigm of the successful man. 他已经成为成功人士的典范。
• Moreover,the results of this research can be the new learning paradigm for digital design studios.除此之外，本研究的研究成果也可以为数位设计课程建立一个新的学习范例。

4 serendipity   

n.偶然发现物品之才能；意外新发现

参考例句：

• "It was serendipity all the way,"he says.用他的话说是“一直都很走运”。
• Some of the best effects in my garden have been the result of serendipity.我园子里最珍贵的几件物品是机缘巧合之下意外所得。

5 insurgent   

adj.叛乱的，起事的；n.叛乱分子

参考例句：

• Faruk says they are threatened both by insurgent and government forces.法鲁克说，他们受到暴乱分子和政府军队的双重威胁。
• The insurgent mob assembled at the gate of the city park.叛变的暴徒聚在市立公园的门口。

6 belligerent   

adj.好战的，挑起战争的；n.交战国，交战者

参考例句：

• He had a belligerent aspect.他有种好斗的神色。
• Our government has forbidden exporting the petroleum to the belligerent countries.我们政府已经禁止向交战国输出石油。

7 incumbent   

adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的

参考例句：

• He defeated the incumbent governor by a large plurality.他以压倒多数票击败了现任州长。
• It is incumbent upon you to warn them.你有责任警告他们。

8 politic   

adj.有智虑的；精明的；v.从政

参考例句：

• He was too politic to quarrel with so important a personage.他很聪明，不会与这么重要的人争吵。
• The politic man tried not to offend people.那个精明的人尽量不得罪人。

9 phenomena   

n.现象

参考例句：

• Ade couldn't relate the phenomena with any theory he knew.艾德无法用他所知道的任何理论来解释这种现象。
• The object of these experiments was to find the connection,if any,between the two phenomena.这些实验的目的就是探索这两种现象之间的联系，如果存在着任何联系的话。

10 infested   

adj.为患的，大批滋生的（常与with搭配）v.害虫、野兽大批出没于( infest的过去式和过去分词 )；遍布于

参考例句：

• The kitchen was infested with ants. 厨房里到处是蚂蚁。
• The apartments were infested with rats and roaches. 公寓里面到处都是老鼠和蟑螂。

11 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

12 consonants   

n.辅音，子音( consonant的名词复数 )；辅音字母

参考例句：

• Consonants are frequently assimilated to neighboring consonants. 辅音往往被其邻近的辅音同化。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Vowels possess greater sonority than consonants. 元音比辅音响亮。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

13 orthographic   

adj.正字法的，拼字正确的；正射

参考例句：

• Then place an osg:Camera above the subgraph to create an orthographic projection. 你所要做的是将你的文字创建在一个子图中。 来自互联网
• What is to be represented, and how? Haitian Creole orthographic debates. 要表现什麽？如何表现？海地克理奥尔拼字法的争论。 来自互联网

14 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

15 hyperlinks   

n.超链接( hyperlink的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Specifies if hyperlinks are displayed and function within the control. 指定是否显示超级链接以及它是否在控件中起作用。 来自互联网
• View, add, and change pages, documents, themes, and borders; recalculate hyperlinks. 查看、添加和更改网页、文档、主题和边框；重新计算超链接。 来自互联网

16 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。

17 adherent   

n.信徒，追随者，拥护者

参考例句：

• He was most liberal where money would bring him a powerful or necessary political adherent.在金钱能够收买一个干练的或者必需的政治拥护者的地方，他是最不惜花钱的。
• He's a pious adherent of Buddhism.他是一位虔诚的佛教徒。

18 faction   

n.宗派，小集团；派别；派系斗争

参考例句：

• Faction and self-interest appear to be the norm.派系之争和自私自利看来非常普遍。
• I now understood clearly that I was caught between the king and the Bunam's faction.我现在完全明白自己已陷入困境，在国王与布纳姆集团之间左右为难。

19 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。