牛津词典“2016年度词汇”：post-truth

04 牛津词典“2016年度词汇”：post-truth

每年，牛津词典都会选出一个“年度词汇”，作为全年的总结或缩影。“2016年度词汇”属于：

post-truth

后真相

Oxford Dictionaries has made “post-truth” its word of the year for 2016, citing a surge in the frequency of its use in the context of Britain's EU referendum and the US presidential election.

“post-truth”当选牛津词典“2016年度词汇”。在英国脱欧公投和美国总统大选的背景之下，这个词汇使用量激增，最终获此称号。

这个形容词很好地代表了当下世界感性冲击理性的社会现象，牛津对该词的解释是：

post-truth

“post-truth (adjective) Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”.

adj.形容相比于情感及个人信念，客观事实对形成民意只有较小的影响。

Oxford Dictionaries said the word appears to have been first used in 1992 by Steve Tesich, the late Serbian-American playwright, in an essay related to the Iran-Contra affair and the first Gulf war.However, he used it to mean “after the truth was known” rather than the modern definition of a situation where the truth is irrelevant.

牛津词典解释说，已故的塞尔维亚裔美国剧作家Steve Tesich于1992年在一篇有关伊朗门事件和第一次海湾战争的文章中，第一次使用了这个词。那时候他用这个词来表示“在真相大白之后”，而现在这个词的意义与“真相”无关。

Despite being in use for more than 20 years, Oxford Dictionaries said post-truth rose to prominence in 2016, particularly when coupled to form the phrase “post-truth politics”.Usage, it said, had increased by 2,000 per cent compared to 2015.

尽管这个词有20年的使用历史，但据牛津词典介绍，post-truth在2016年才出现使用量大幅增加的情况，尤其是作为词组“post-truth politics ”（后真相政治）出现。与2015年比较，post-truth的使用量增长了2000%。

后真相政治（Post-truth politics）是一种政治文化，亦是当今国际出现的一种新趋势。“后真相政治”是“事实胜于雄辩”的相反，即是“雄辩胜于事实”，意见重于事实，立场决定是非，人们把情感和感觉放在首位，证据、事实和真相沦为次要，政治人物说谎不再是为了瞒骗，而是巩固目标群众的偏见，换取共鸣与支持。

——来源：Wikipedia

“Post-truth has gone from being a peripheral term to being a mainstay in political commentary, now often being used by major publications without the need for clarification or definition in their headlines,” Oxford Dictionaries said.

牛津词典称：post-truth已经从一个生僻词汇变成了政治评论语言中的常用词。如今在许多主流出版物的头条中都可以看见它的出现，而且并不需要对其加以解说或注释了。

The phrase became a feature of Brexit and the US elections, in which campaigns were accused of using false information to help sway voters.

这个词成为了英国脱欧和美国大选的一大特色，竞选者经常被控诉用虚假的信息来动摇选民意愿。

Google and Facebook have come under fire after the US election result for failing to police the rise of fake news, which spread widely on social networks in the run-up to the vote.

Google和Facebook在美国大选结果公布后遭到了批评，因为它们没有有效监管假新闻，让它们在投票前在社交网络上广泛传播。

Both companies said on Tuesday they would take steps to restrict advertising to sites that hosted fake news.

两家公司都在周二表示将采取措施，以限制发布虚假新闻的网站的广告宣传。

Last year Oxford Dictionaries' word of the year was, for the first time, not a word but an emoji—a round yellow face laughing and crying known as “Face with Tears of Joy”, made popular by online communication services such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

去年牛津词典的年度词汇并非一个词语，而是首度颁给了那个黄色的又笑又哭的emoji表情符号——。它风靡了WhatsApp和Facebook Messenger等在线交流软件。

Previous new entries include selfie (2013), omnishambles (2012) and Big Society (2010).

之前的年度词汇还有，2013年的selfie（自拍），2012年的omnishambles（一团糟）和2010年的Big Society（大社会，英国前首相卡梅伦提出的政治口号）。

今年的年度词汇候选名单里还有：

glass cliff,

n.used with reference to a situation in which a woman or member of a minority group ascends to a leadership position in challenging circumstances where the risk of failure is high.

玻璃悬崖：n.指女性或者少数群体人士在晋升路上遇到的高失败风险的处境。

Brexiteer,

n.British informal a person who is in favour of the United Kingdom withdrawing from the European Union.

脱欧支持者：对于支持英国退出欧盟的支持者的非正式称呼。

alt-right,

n.(in the US) an ideological grouping associated with extreme conservative or reactionary viewpoints, characterized by a rejection of mainstream politics and by the use of online media to disseminate deliberately controversial content.

另类右翼：美国的有关极端保守或者反对改革的思想意识流派，他们的特征是：拒绝主流政治、用在线媒体传播争议性内容。

词汇总结

surge [sɜːdʒ]

n.激增；汹涌；大浪，波涛；汹涌澎湃

Oxford Dictionaries has made “post-truth” its word of the year for 2016, citing a surge in the frequency of its use in the context of Britain's EU referendum and the US presidential election.

“post-truth”当选牛津词典“2016年度词汇”。在英国脱欧公投和美国总统大选的背景之下，这个词汇使用量激增，最终获此称号。

peripheral [pə'rɪf(ə)r(ə)l]

adj.生僻的；外围的；次要的；末梢区域的

Post-truth has gone from being a peripheral term to being a mainstay in political commentary.

post-truth已经从一个生僻词汇变成了政治评论语言中的常用词。

sway voter

摇摆选民

The phrase became a feature of Brexit and the US elections, in which campaigns were accused of using false information to help sway voters.

这个词成为了英国脱欧和美国大选的一大特色，竞选者经常被控诉用虚假的信息来动摇选民意愿。