双语笑话 第169期:“笑哭”表情符成牛津词典“年度词汇”

Oxford Dictionaries 'Word Of The Year' Is . . . An Emoji?

“笑哭”表情符成牛津词典“年度词汇”

We All know that life without emojis, (the small digital icons that we use ad nauseam) would be extremely boring. Hence, it is only fitting that the editors of the prestigious Oxford English Dictionary chose - The emoji with the tears of joy as its 'Word of the Year' for 2015.

我们都清楚，如果生活中少了这些表情符号的调味，会变得多么无聊。那么词典界的权威——《牛津词典》的编写者把“哭笑”表情加入2015“年度词汇”这件事，就显得合情合理了。

The company that announced its unusual word choice on November 16th said that it was picked over several other traditional contenders. Among them were 'refugee', 'sharing economy' and 'on fleek'. However, it was this simple emoji that resonated with the editors because it appeared to best describe the "ethos, mood, and preoccupations of 2015."

11月16日，《牛津词典》对外公布了其对这个在其他传统竞争者中杀出重围的非传统词汇的选择。 而那些传统词汇包括：“'refugee（难民）”、“sharing economy（股份制经济）”和“fleek(连连)”。然而也正是这个简单的表情符号引起了编写者们的共鸣，因为它最好的体现了2015年的社会思潮、人们的心情和关注点。

They also thought that this was a good year to pay homage to the emoji. For though they have been around since the late 1990's, the use of the digital icons and the word that describes them, has escalated sharply this year. Besides, emojis are now used by people of all ages, not just teenagers.

他们也觉得今年是关注表情符号的时候了。虽然这些电子表情符号在90年代末就出现了，但今年才开始在世界迅速范围火起来。除此之外，表情符号现在为各年龄段人群所使用，并不限于年轻人。

Also, though the word stems from the Japanese language - e (picture), moji (character or letter), the digital icons can be understood by everyone regardless of the language they speak. Hence it only makes sense to acknowledge their importance to global communication.

虽然这个词起源于日语，e（日语中“图片”词汇的发音），moji(日语中“文字或字母”的发言)，这个表情符号却为各种语言的人群所理解和喜爱。那么现在把它的重要性上升到全球高度就不足为奇了。

As to how they selected from the thousands of emojis that are available? The company says that they partnered with a leading mobile technology company SwiftKey to determine the most popular emoji. Turns out that 'tears of joy' is the most used icon. According to SwiftKey, made up 17% of all emojis used in the U.S. A and an astounding 20% in the United Kingdom!

编写者们为何从上千个表情符号中选中了“哭笑”表情呢？《牛津词典》表示，他们是和电信公司领军者SwiftKey公司合作，一起进行了筛选，最终发现“哭笑”表情最受欢迎。据SwiftKey公司称，在美国所有的表情中该表情使用率为17%， 在英国则有20%之多。

Though this is the first time the Oxford University Press has selected an image for its 'word of the year', it is not the first time they have tried to incorporate modern lingo into their 150-year-old publication. In 2013, in recognition of the growing popularity of self-portraits, the editors selected 'selfie,' for the 'Word of the Year'!

虽然发行150年之久的《牛津词典》出版社第一次评选一个表情为“年度词汇”，但这并非他们第一次尝试在词典中加入潮词。早在2013年，“自拍”大幅流行之时，编写者们就把“Selfie(自拍照)”这个词选为了“年度词汇”。

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