"Bailout," "change" crowned the words of 2008

"Bailout" and "change" were crowned on Monday as the words of 2008 after a year in which a huge financial crisis hit the United States and Barack Obama celebrated a historic victory as the first US black president.

Merriam-Webster Inc., the publisher of a leading US dictionary, said "bailout" -- meaning "a rescue from financial distress" -- was the word that received the highest intensity of lookups over the shortest period of time.

John Morse, publisher of Merriam-Webster Inc., said this was not surprising given that the word ubiquitously featured in discussions of the presidency and fiscal policy.

He said the presidential campaign also produced voluminous hits for words like "vet," which ranked second in the 2008 list, "bipartisan," "misogyny," and the word used to describe both candidates on the Republican ticket, "maverick."

He said one of biggest event-related words of the year was "socialism" which came third in the list of the 10 top lookup requests.

Rounding out the top 10 list were "trepidation," "precipice," "rogue," and "turmoil."

A separate survey on words used in the media and on the Internet by Texas-based Global Language Monitor spotted similar trends, with "change" coming top of its list -- the top political buzzword of the US presidential campaign.

Global Language Monitor, which uses an algorithm to track words and phrases in the media and on the Internet, said "bailout" came second in its list but would have been higher if it had hit the media earlier than mid-September.

"Obamamania," which describes the global reaction to Obama's campaign and subsequent election victory, came third in the list followed by "greenwashing," "surge," "derivative," "subprime," and "foreclosure."

Rounding out the top 10 were "Phelpsian," referring to swimming champion Michael Phelps' feat of winning eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and "Chinglish," the often amusing Chinese-English hybrid that hit the headlines ahead of the Beijing games.

"Global English has been driven by three notable events during the course of 2008: the US Presidential Election, the financial tsunami, and the Beijing Olympics," said Paul JJ Payack, president of The Global Language Monitor.

He said "financial tsunami" was the top phrase of the year followed by "global warming" and Obama's "Yes, We Can," while among the top 10 political names in the media in 2008 were Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Hillary Clinton.

2008年度熱詞榜于本周一出爐，在金融風(fēng)暴席卷美國(guó)和奧巴馬當(dāng)選美國(guó)歷史上首位非洲裔總統(tǒng)的形勢(shì)之下，““援助（bailout）”和“改變（change）當(dāng)之無愧地登上熱詞榜之首。

美國(guó)權(quán)威辭書出版機(jī)構(gòu)梅里亞姆•韋伯斯特公司稱，“baillout”（意為財(cái)政救援）是今年短時(shí)間內(nèi)查詢頻率最高的詞語(yǔ)。

韋氏公司總部位于馬薩諸塞州。總裁約翰•莫斯稱，今年“bailout”一詞在與總統(tǒng)選舉和財(cái)政政策有關(guān)的討論中“頻頻出現(xiàn)，所以當(dāng)選年度詞匯并不意外。

莫斯稱，今年的總統(tǒng)大選還催生了 “vet（老兵）”、“bipartisan（兩黨連立）”、“misogyny（厭女）”、及用來形容共和黨兩位候選人的“maverick（標(biāo)新立異者）”等一系列熱詞，其中“vet”高居排行榜第二位。

此外，排在前十名的還有一個(gè)與時(shí)局有關(guān)的詞就是socialism（社會(huì)主義）。

躋身前十名的其它幾個(gè)詞還包括：trepidation（恐慌）、precipice（懸崖；險(xiǎn)境）、rogue（無賴；詐騙）和turmoil（騷亂）。

位于美國(guó)得克薩斯州的全球語(yǔ)言監(jiān)測(cè)機(jī)構(gòu)對(duì)媒體和網(wǎng)絡(luò)用詞開展的一項(xiàng)獨(dú)立調(diào)查也發(fā)現(xiàn)了類似趨勢(shì)，調(diào)查結(jié)果顯示，“change（該變）”為今年媒體和網(wǎng)絡(luò)上出現(xiàn)頻率最高的詞，是美國(guó)總統(tǒng)大選催生出的最熱門的政治流行詞。

全球語(yǔ)言監(jiān)測(cè)機(jī)構(gòu)采用一種運(yùn)算法對(duì)媒體和網(wǎng)絡(luò)上出現(xiàn)的詞匯進(jìn)行了跟蹤統(tǒng)計(jì)，據(jù)其介紹，如果位居第二的“bailout”一詞于9月中旬之前就出現(xiàn)在媒體上，那么它就有可能位居榜首。

奧巴馬贏得大選在全球引發(fā)的Obamania（“奧巴馬熱”）名列第三，“greenwashing（“漂綠”）”、“surge（增長(zhǎng)）”、“derivative（衍生產(chǎn)品）”、“subprime（次貸）”和“forclosure（止贖權(quán)）”位列其后。

排在這份榜單前十位的詞語(yǔ)還包括：“Phelpsian( 前所未有的勝利)”，主要形容美國(guó)游泳名將菲爾普斯在北京奧運(yùn)會(huì)上獨(dú)攬八枚金牌的輝煌戰(zhàn)績(jī)。；以及“Chinglish（中式英語(yǔ)）”，指的令人啼笑皆非的“中國(guó)式”英語(yǔ)，在北京奧運(yùn)會(huì)之前它成為報(bào)紙的頭條新聞。

全球語(yǔ)言監(jiān)測(cè)機(jī)構(gòu)主席保羅•帕亞克說：“今年有三件大事推進(jìn)了英語(yǔ)全球化：美國(guó)總統(tǒng)大選、金融危機(jī)和北京奧運(yùn)會(huì)。”

他說，“financial tsunami（金融海嘯）”是今年最熱門的短語(yǔ)，“global warming（全球變暖）”和奧巴馬的口號(hào)“Yes, we can.（我們能做到！）”位居其后。此外，奧巴馬、布什和希拉里登上今年的媒體十大政界名人排行榜。

Vocabulary:

greenwashing:漂綠（由brainwashing轉(zhuǎn)變而來；指的是公司在廣告和營(yíng)銷中宣傳自己產(chǎn)品的環(huán)保特性，但這些特性和宣揚(yáng)根本經(jīng)不起消費(fèi)者的嚴(yán)密審查（也就是有虛假成分）的行為。）