VOA慢速英語：后真相（Post-Truth）成為2016年牛津字典年度詞匯

'Post-Truth' Named 2016 Word of the Year

后真相（Post-Truth）成為2016年牛津字典年度詞匯

"Post-Truth" is Oxford Dictionaries' Word of the Year.

后真相(Post-Truth)成為了今年牛津字典的年度詞匯。

The Oxford Dictionaries website told readers post-truth could be "one of the defining words of our time."

牛津字典網(wǎng)站告訴讀者，后真相可能會成為“定義我們這個時代的詞匯之一”。

The term comes from an idea that became popular during the 2016 election campaign in the United States.

這個詞匯歸因于2016年美國大選期間流行開來的一種想法。

Post-truth, as the website defines it, means to relate to situations where "objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief."

正如該網(wǎng)站所定義的，后真相是指“在影響公眾輿論方面，客觀事實的影響力不及訴諸于情感和個人信念”這么一種狀況。

Oxford Dictionaries officials say they chose post-truth as Word of the Year because of its rising popularity. They said the term's usage appeared to increase 2,000% in 2016 alone.

牛津字典官員表示他們選擇后真相作為年度詞匯，是因為它越來越受歡迎。他們稱2016年這個詞匯的使用量上漲了2000%。

Casper Grathwohl is the president of Oxford Dictionaries. He said that the choice was no surprise after a year filled with difficult discussions about politics.

牛津字典總裁卡斯帕·格拉斯沃(Casper Grathwohl)表示，在經(jīng)歷了充斥著關于政治的艱難討論的這么一年之后，這個詞匯被選為年度詞匯并不奇怪。

Grathwohl said post-truth has become popular at a time when more people are using social media to get news. Some people trust social media more for news and information than establishment media or political leaders.

格拉斯沃表示，正值人們更多使用社交媒體獲得新聞的這么一個時刻，后真相這個詞匯流行了開來。有些人在新聞和信息上更相信社交媒體而不是新聞部門或政治領袖。

Choosing the Word of the Year

選擇年度詞匯

If you plan to use the word, Oxford Dictionaries defines it as an adjective. An example of it is the expression "post-truth politics."

牛津詞典將后真相這個單詞定義為形容詞，例如后真相政治。

The website said that post-truth has gone from being a new term to a word often used in political commentary. Major publications now use the term without feeling the need to define its meaning.

該網(wǎng)站表示，后真相已經(jīng)從一個新詞匯變成了政治評論中的常用詞匯。主流出版物認為現(xiàn)在使用這個詞匯已經(jīng)無需定義其含義。

A number of other terms were under consideration for Oxford Dictionaries' Word of the Year. They included "Brexiteer," which means someone who supported Britain's decision to exit, or leave, the European Union. Another choice was "alt-right," which describes a group tied to extreme conservative ideas, and known to reject traditional politics. A third possibility was "adulting," a noun meaning the action of someone behaving like a responsible adult.

牛津大學年度詞匯還考慮了很多其它詞匯，其中包括英國脫歐支持者(Brexiteer)，意思是支持英國退出歐盟的人士。另一個備選詞匯是另類右翼運動(alt-right)，它是指思想觀念極度保守，以排斥傳統(tǒng)政治而聞名的團體。第三個可能詞匯是成年人的行事方式(adulating)，這是個名詞，指的是負責任的成年人所持的行為方式。

History of "Post Truth"

后真相這個詞匯的發(fā)展歷史

It appears that post-truth, with its current meaning, has been in existence for more than 20 years.

具備當前意義的后真相這個詞匯似乎已經(jīng)存在了20多年。

Oxford Dictionaries found its first use in a 1992 commentary published in The Nation magazine. Steve Tesich, a Serbian-American playwright, used "post-truth" in writing about the Iran-Contra scandal and the Gulf War.

牛津字典發(fā)現(xiàn)《國家》雜志1992年發(fā)表的一篇評論中首次用到了這個詞匯。塞爾維亞裔美國劇作家史蒂夫·特西希(Steve Tesich)使用后真相這個詞描述了伊朗門事件和海灣戰(zhàn)爭。

"We, as a free people, have freely decided that we want to live in some post-truth world," he wrote.

他寫道，“我們作為一個自由民族，已經(jīng)自由決定我們想要生活在一個后真相的世界中。”

I'm Phil Dierking.

Phil Dierking報道。