“存在主义”获选词典网站2019年度词汇 Dictionary.com chooses `existential’ as word of the year

2019年接近尾声，各大词典纷纷发布年度词汇。词典网站Dictionary.com的年度词汇也于近日出炉。该网站指出，“存在主义（existential）” 一词贯穿于2019全年的讨论中，成为人们关注的焦点。

Climate change, gun violence, the very nature of democracy and an angsty little movie star called Forky helped propel “existential” to Dictionary.com’s word of the year.

气候变化、枪支暴力、民主的本质和易怒的电影小明星“玩具叉叉”使“存在主义”一词获选词典网站Dictionary.com 2019年度词汇。

existential [ˌeɡzɪˈstenʃl]：adj.存在主义的；有关存在的

The choice reflects months of high-stakes threats and crises, real and pondered, across the news, the world and throughout 2019.

这个选择反映出数月以来的高风险威胁和危机，真实存在且引人深思，遍及新闻界和整个世界，贯穿2019全年。

“In our data, it speaks to this sense of grappling with our survival, both literally and figuratively, that defined so much of the discourse,” said John Kelly, senior research editor for the site, ahead of Monday’s announcement.

该网站的高级研究编辑约翰·凯利在周一（12月2日）发布年度词汇之前表示：“在我们的数据中，这个选择体现了一种与生存抗争的意识，无论是字面上还是象征意义上，界定了很多讨论。”

The word earned top of mind awareness in sustained searches at Dictionary.com in the aftermath of wildfires and Hurricane Dorian, and mass shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, and El Paso, Texas. It also reared itself in presidential politics and pop culture, including Forky the white plastic spork who was the breakout star of “Toy Story 4.”

在森林大火、飓风“多里安”、新西兰基督城和美国德克萨斯州埃尔帕索的大规模枪击事件之后，“存在主义”一词在词典网站Dictionary.com的搜索量一直居高不下，成为人们最关注的焦点。这一词汇也在总统政治和流行文化中崭露头角，包括《玩具总动员4》中脱颖而出的明星——白色塑料“玩具叉叉”。

The soiled utensil is convinced his destiny is in the trash, until he embraces his purpose as a treasured toy of kindergartener Bonnie.

这个被弄脏的餐具确信自己注定会被丢进垃圾桶，直到成为幼儿园小朋友邦妮珍爱的玩具，才接纳了自己的使命。

“Forky underscores how this sense of grappling can also inspire us to ask big questions about who we are, about our purpose,” Kelly told The Associated Press.

凯利在接受美联社采访时表示，“叉叉的故事告诉我们，这种抗争意识也能激发我们思考一些重大问题，比如我们是谁，我们生活的目的是什么。”

Oxford Dictionaries picked “climate emergency” as its word of the year, noting usage evidence that reflects the “ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the passing year,” the company said in a statement.

该公司在一份声明中称，牛津词典将“气候紧急状态”选为今年的年度词汇，并指出人们使用这个词汇的证据能反映“过去一年的社会思潮、情绪或关注点”。

Dictionary.com crunches lookup and other data to decide which word to anoint each year. The site has been picking a word of the year since 2010.

词典网站Dictionary.com通过分析查找和其他数据来决定当年的年度词汇。该网站自2010年开始评选年度词汇。

anoint[əˈnɔɪnt]：vt.指定

Among search spikes for “existential” were those that occurred after both Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders and 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg characterized climate change as an “existential” crisis, Kelly said.

凯利说，一部分“存在主义”的搜索高是在美国民主党总统候选人伯尼·桑德斯和16岁的气候活动家格里塔·腾贝格将气候变化描述为“存在主义”危机之后出现的。

Another spike occurred when former Vice President Joe Biden, also vying for the Democratic presidential nod, painted President Donald Trump as an “existential threat” to decency.

另一次搜索高峰出现在美国前副总统乔·拜登将总统唐纳德·特朗普描述为对于体面的“存在主义威胁”之后。乔·拜登也加入了民主党总统候选人的角逐。

The word dates to 1685, deriving from Late Latin’s “existentialis.” Dictionary.com defines existential as “of or relating to existence” and “of, relating to, or characteristic of philosophical existentialism; concerned with the nature of human existence as determined by the individual’s freely made choices.”

这个词可以追溯到1685年，源于后期拉丁语existentialis。词典网站Dictionary.com将存在主义定义为“存在的或与存在有关的”，或“哲学存在主义的，或与哲学存在主义有关的，或具有哲学存在主义特征的；关注由个人自由选择所决定的人类存在的本质”。

Climate, guns and the impeachment crisis for Donald Trump were just a few areas that seemed to frame debate in existential terms. So did the Notre Dame fire, tensions between the United States and China, and Big Tech’s privacy and fake news problems.

气候、枪支和唐纳德·特朗普的弹劾危机只是少数几个从存在主义角度引发辩论的领域。巴黎圣母院失火、中美关系紧张、大科技公司的隐私和假新闻问题也是如此。

impeachment [ɪmˈpiːtʃmənt]：n.弹劾；控告

“We started to see existential in the dialogue beginning in January and all the way through the year,” said Jennifer Steeves-Kiss, Dictionary.com’s chief executive officer. “This is a consistent theme that we saw in our data, but it also was leveraged across many different important questions of our time.”

词典网站Dictionary.com的首席执行官珍妮弗•斯蒂维斯-基思说：“从今年1月开始，一直到今年年底，我们都能从对话中看到存在主义。这是我们在数据中看到的一个永恒的主题，但它也用在了当今时代许多不同的重要问题上。”

As for Forky, his journey from disposable utensil to handmade toy points to the concept of “agency,” Kelly said, referring to the power to direct our own existences. That, he said, affords us the “opportunity to turn existential threats into existential choices.”

至于叉叉，凯利说，他从一次性餐具到手工玩具的经历指出了“能动性”这一概念，“能动性”指的是指导我们自身存在的力量，这“给了我们机会，把存在的威胁变成存在的选择”。

agency：能动性，在存在主义的思想中，能动性是经常用来描述自由的词语

英文来源：abcnews

翻译&编辑：yaning