‘GIF’ named word of the year by 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

 它已经让全球的人们欢笑了25年，但现在才正式在文化辞典中拥有了荣誉的一席之地。GIF正式获选为今年《牛津美国辞典》的年度词汇。

牛津大学美国辞典项目负责人凯瑟琳-马丁说：“GIF在2012年成为词汇的里程碑，作为动词当选年度词汇，而不仅仅是名词。”

“GIF已经从流行文化基因的媒介发展成为有多种用途的工具，比如用于研究和新闻业，而它在词汇方面的定位也在随之改变。”

GIF是“图形交换格式”三个英文单词首字母的缩写。最早在1987年由美国在线信息服务机构“计算机服务”公布，但近些年在文化领域强势复苏，最常用于对从体育到美国大选等热门话题的诙谐评论。

年度词汇榜单的第二位也是一个缩写YOLO，意思是“你只有一辈子可活”。

入选年度名单的还有“超级风暴”，该词因为在11月的周横扫美国东岸的桑迪飓风大量曝光。

英国版的牛津辞典今年的年度词汇则是“一团糟”，含义是“由于管理非常不当，出现大量的错误和误差，导致的混乱局面。”

毫无疑问，以上三个词汇都表明了新词正对文化景观产生越来越大的影响。

另外，一些旧有词汇也被赋予新的语义。源自罗马词汇plebs（平民、民众）的Pleb在现代语境中用来形容普通人或者工人阶级，含有贬义。

有趣的是，即便当选年度词汇，也不能保证入选的词汇将来都会收录进《牛津英语辞典》。

其他入选的词汇还有：

1. 非常严峻的欧洲危机。由 Euro和 Armageddon合成而来。

2. 超级政治行动组织

3. 超级风暴

4. 无手机焦虑症

5. 希格斯玻色子，或称“上帝粒子”

6. YOLO：“你只有一辈子可活”，

7. MOOC: 大量的网络公开课程

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