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 圖像文件已經(jīng)讓全世界的人們歡樂(lè)了25年，如今這個(gè)單詞終于正式在文化辭典中有了非常榮耀的一席之地?！癎IF” 被《美國(guó)牛津詞典》選為2012年度詞匯。

"GIF celebrated a lexical milestone in 2012, gaining traction as a verb, not just a noun," said Katherine Martin, head of the U.S. dictionaries program at Oxford.
牛津在美國(guó)的辭典項(xiàng)目負(fù)責(zé)人凱瑟琳·馬丁表示：“GIF成了2012年的詞匯里程碑，作為動(dòng)詞形式當(dāng)選為年度詞匯，而不僅僅是名詞?！?

"The GIF has evolved from a medium for pop-culturalmemes into a tool with serious applications including research and journalism, and its lexical identity is transforming to keep pace."
她解釋道：“GIF已經(jīng)從當(dāng)初的流行文化基因的媒介，發(fā)展成如今重要的應(yīng)用工具，廣泛應(yīng)用于研究和新聞業(yè)等領(lǐng)域。它的作用轉(zhuǎn)變有目共睹，所以它的詞匯地位也應(yīng)該緊隨發(fā)生變化?！?/div>

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.
GIF實(shí)際上是三個(gè)獨(dú)立單詞的縮寫(xiě)：圖形變換格式。首次出現(xiàn)在1987年，由美國(guó)最大的在線信息服務(wù)機(jī)構(gòu)美聯(lián)網(wǎng)發(fā)布，不過(guò)近些年又出現(xiàn)了強(qiáng)勢(shì)的文化復(fù)蘇，最常用來(lái)發(fā)表幽默評(píng)論，涉及到的話題非常廣泛，從運(yùn)動(dòng)到2012美國(guó)總統(tǒng)大選等。

The runner-up for the word of the year was also an abbreviation, "YOLO," which stands for "You only live once."
《美國(guó)牛津詞典》2012年度詞匯榜單上的第二名也是一個(gè)縮寫(xiě)詞：YOLO，意為：“生命只有一次。”

"Superstorm" was another runner-up for word of the year, after the major storm that affected the Eastern U.S. during the first week of November.
今年候選名單上還有“Superstorm”（超級(jí)風(fēng)暴），這個(gè)單詞上榜是由于11月第一周大面積影響美國(guó)東部地區(qū)的桑迪颶風(fēng)帶來(lái)的暴風(fēng)雨。

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."
《英國(guó)牛津詞典》則走的是不同路線，選擇的2012英國(guó)年度詞為“omnishambles” （一團(tuán)糟），用來(lái)描述 “由于管理及其不善，造成一連串差錯(cuò)和誤算的混亂局面”。

Needless to say, having all three words shows how neologisms are having a growing influence in the cultural landscape.
毫無(wú)疑問(wèn)，這三個(gè)單詞都代表著當(dāng)下新詞構(gòu)詞法對(duì)文化格局的日益加深的影響。

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."
另外還有一些老舊詞匯也被賦予了新的語(yǔ)言涵義。源自羅馬詞匯“plebs” （平民）的“Pleb” 在新的語(yǔ)境中，用于描述“普通民眾或是工人階級(jí)”，含有貶義。

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.
不過(guò)有趣的是，盡管這些單詞現(xiàn)在當(dāng)選了年度詞匯，也無(wú)法保證未來(lái)它們會(huì)真正被收錄進(jìn)新版的《牛津英語(yǔ)詞典》。

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