The Web site Dictionary.com has named its word of the year for 2022: woman.
In a statement, the Web site said: “Our selection of woman … reflects how the intersection of gender, identity and language dominates the current cultural conversation and shapes much of our work as a dictionary.”
It also said: “Searches for the word woman on Dictionary.com spiked significantly multiple times in relation to separate high-profile events, including the moment when a question about the very definition of the word was posed on the national stage.”
Photo: Screen grab from Dictionary.com’s twitter account 照片:擷圖自Dictionary.com之推特
That was a reference to a US Supreme Court confirmation hearing in March, when the nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, was asked by Marsha Blackburn, a Republican senator from Tennessee, to define the word woman.
Jackson said: “No I can’t.”
Soon after, Jackson became the first Black woman confirmed to the court.
Searches for woman increased by 1,400 percent after the hearing, Dictionary.com said, the highest spike for the word this year.
According to Dictionary.com, the definition of woman is “an adult female person.”
Other key moments that led to the word being chosen included the Supreme Court voting to overturn Roe v Wade and thereby revoke the constitutional right to abortion; the death of Queen Elizabeth II; tennis player Serena Williams’ retirement announcement; freedom protests led by women in Iran; and more.
Referring to the Supreme Court abortion decision, Dictionary.com said: “Unsurprisingly, it resulted in both polarization and galvanization. That dynamic played out in November’s midterm elections, which upended trends and expectations.”
“The outcome has been attributed in part to an electorate, and particularly women, voting in reaction to the Dobbs ruling. The election also added to the ranks of the nation’s women governors, resulting in what will be a record number of women – 12 – serving as governors in 2023.”
Dictionary.com’s senior director of editorial, John Kelly, said that to qualify as word of the year, a word must see “a significant increase in searches” and “capture the major cultural themes and trends in language” for the 12 months in question.
In 2022, shortlisted words included inflation, quiet quitting, democracy, the Ukraine flag emoji and Wordle — the last a popular word game bought by the New York Times.
In 2021, Dictionary.com named allyship as its word of the year. Previous words of the year were pandemic (2020), existential (2019), misinformation (2018), complicit (2017), xenophobia (2016), identity (2015), exposure (2014), privacy (2013), bluster (2012), tergiversate (2011), and change (2010).
(The Guardian)
辭典網站Dictionary.com 選出了2022年之年度詞彙:「woman」(女人)。
該網站在一份聲明中表示:「我們選擇『女人』一詞……反映出這性別、身份和語言的交集,是如何在當今的文化對話中佔據主要部分,並形塑了我們字典編纂工作的一大部分」。
它還說:「好幾次在備受關注的個別事件發生後,在Dictionary.com上查詢「woman」一詞的次數顯著增加了,包括那次在國家殿堂要求定義此詞」。
這指的是三月舉行的美國最高法院大法官確認聽證會,來自田納西州的共和黨參議員瑪夏‧布萊克本要求大法官被提名人凱坦吉‧ 布朗‧傑克森為「女人」一詞下定義。
傑克森說:「不,我沒辦法」。
不久之後,傑克森成為第一位黑人女性大法官。
Dictionary.com表示,在聽證會後,在聽證會後,對「女人」一詞的查詢次數增加了1,400%,這是今年查詢該詞的最高峰。
根據Dictionary.com,「woman」一詞的定義為「成年女性」。
其他讓「woman」一詞雀屏中選的關鍵時刻,還包括最高法院投票推翻羅訴韋德案,而使美國憲法不再保障墮胎權,伊麗莎白二世女王去世、網球運動員小威廉絲宣布退休、伊朗婦女要求自由的抗議活動等等。
談到最高法院關於墮胎的裁決,Dictionary.com表示:「不出所料,它導致了兩極分化與激化。這種動能在十一月的期中選舉發揮了作用,顛覆了趨勢及預期。
「結果部分歸因於選民,尤其是女性選民,對多布斯訴傑克森婦女健康組織案的裁決做出了反應。此次選舉還增加了全國女性州長的人數,而使2023年擔任州長的女性人數達到創紀錄的十二人」。
Dictionary.com的高級編輯總監約翰‧凱利表示,要成為年度詞彙,該詞必須在十二個月內「檢索次數顯著增加」,並且「捕捉到主要的文化主題及語言趨勢」。
入圍2022年度詞彙的,還包括inflation(通貨膨脹)、quiet quitting(安靜辭職)、democracy(民主)、烏克蘭國旗表情符號,以及Wordle(被紐約時報收購的一款受歡迎的文字遊戲)。
2021年,Dictionary.com將allyship(盟友關係)一字選為年度詞彙。之前的年度詞彙為2020年的pandemic(大流行病)、2019年的existential(攸關存亡的)、2018年的misinformation(錯誤訊息)、2017年的complicit(共謀)、2016年的xenophobia(仇外心理)、2015年的identity(身份)、2014年的exposure(揭發)、2013年的privacy(隱私)、2012年的bluster(虛張聲勢、咆哮恫嚇)、2011年的tergiversate(變節),以及2010年的change(改變)。
(台北時報林俐凱編譯)
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