‘GIF’ named word of the year by Oxford American Dictionary

"GIF" has been chosen as word of the year by the Oxford American Dictionary.

It's been delighting people around the world for 25 years but now formally holds a honored place in the cultural lexicon: "GIF" has been chosen as word of the year by the Oxford American Dictionary.

"GIF celebrated a lexical milestone in 2012, gaining traction as a verb, not just a noun," said Katherine Martin, head of the US dictionaries program at Oxford.

"The GIF has evolved from a medium for pop-cultural memes into a tool with serious applications including research and journalism, and its lexical identity is transforming to keep pace."

GIF is, in fact, an abbreviation of three separate words: Graphics Interchange Format. It was first released by CompuServe in 1987 but has experienced a dramatic cultural resurgence in recent years, most commonly used to make humorous commentary on topics ranging from sports to the 2012 presidential election.

The runner-up for the word of the year was also an abbreviation, "YOLO," which stands for "You only live once."

"Superstorm" was another runner-up for word of the year, after the major storm that affected the Eastern US during the first week of November.

The British Oxford Dictionaries went a different route, choosing "omnishambles," as their word of the year, which is defined as "a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, characterized by a string of blunders and miscalculations."

Needless to say, having all three words shows how neologisms are having a growing influence in the cultural landscape.

Still, some older words have found new linguistic relevance. "Pleb," taken from the Roman word "plebs," has found a modern context in its derogatory usage to describe "a member of the ordinary people or working classes."

Interestingly, the word-of the-year distinction does not guarantee that the chosen words will actually be included in future editions of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Here's the other shortlisted words according to OUP:

1. Eurogeddon

2. Super PAC

3. Superstorm

4. Nomophobia

5. Higgs boson

6. YOLO: you only live once

7. MOOC: massive open online course

它已經讓全球的人們歡笑瞭25年，但現在才正式在文化辭典中擁有瞭榮譽的一席之地。GIF正式獲選為今年《牛津美國辭典》的年度詞匯。

牛津大學美國辭典項目負責人凱瑟琳-馬丁說：“GIF在2012年成為詞匯的裡程碑，作為動詞當選年度詞匯，而不僅僅是名詞。”

“GIF已經從流行文化基因的媒介發展成為有多種用途的工具，比如用於研究和新聞業，而它在詞匯方面的定位也在隨之改變。”

GIF是“圖形交換格式”三個英文單詞首字母的縮寫。最早在1987年由美國在線信息服務機構“計算機服務”公佈，但近些年在文化領域強勢復蘇，最常用於對從體育到美國大選等熱門話題的詼諧評論。

年度詞匯榜單的第二位也是一個縮寫YOLO，意思是“你隻有一輩子可活”。

入選年度名單的還有“超級風暴”，該詞因為在11月的第一周橫掃美國東岸的桑迪颶風大量曝光。

英國版的牛津辭典今年的年度詞匯則是“一團糟”，含義是“由於管理非常不當，出現大量的錯誤和誤差，導致的混亂局面。”

毫無疑問，以上三個詞匯都表明瞭新詞正對文化景觀產生越來越大的影響。

另外，一些舊有詞匯也被賦予新的語義。源自羅馬詞匯plebs（平民、民眾）的Pleb在現代語境中用來形容普通人或者工人階級，含有貶義。

有趣的是，即便當選年度詞匯，也不能保證入選的詞匯將來都會收錄進《牛津英語辭典》。

其他入選的詞匯還有：

1. 非常嚴峻的歐洲危機。由 Euro和 Armageddon合成而來。

2. 超級政治行動組織

3. 超級風暴

4. 無手機焦慮癥

5. 希格斯玻色子，或稱“上帝粒子”

6. YOLO：“你隻有一輩子可活”，

7. MOOC: 大量的網絡公開課程