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"Bailout" and "change" were crowned on Monday as the words of 2008 after a year in which a huge financial crisis hit the United States and Barack Obama celebrated a historic victory as the first US black president.
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"Bailout" and "change" were crowned on Monday as the words of 2008 after a year in which a huge financial crisis hit the United States and Barack Obama celebrated a historic victory as the first US black president.
Merriam-Webster Inc., the publisher of a leading US dictionary, said "bailout" -- meaning "a rescue from financial distress" -- was the word that received the highest intensity of lookups over the shortest period of time.
John Morse, publisher of Merriam-Webster Inc., said this was not surprising given that the word ubiquitously featured in discussions of the presidency and fiscal policy.
He said the presidential campaign also produced voluminous hits for words like "vet," which ranked second in the 2008 list, "bipartisan," "misogyny," and the word used to describe both candidates on the Republican ticket, "maverick."
He said one of biggest event-related words of the year was "socialism" which came third in the list of the 10 top lookup requests.
Rounding out the top 10 list were "trepidation," "precipice," "rogue," and "turmoil."
A separate survey on words used in the media and on the Internet by Texas-based Global Language Monitor spotted similar trends, with "change" coming top of its list -- the top political buzzword of the US presidential campaign.
Global Language Monitor, which uses an algorithm to track words and phrases in the media and on the Internet, said "bailout" came second in its list but would have been higher if it had hit the media earlier than mid-September.
"Obamamania," which describes the global reaction to Obama's campaign and subsequent election victory, came third in the list followed by "greenwashing," "surge," "derivative," "subprime," and "foreclosure."
Rounding out the top 10 were "Phelpsian," referring to swimming champion Michael Phelps' feat of winning eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and "Chinglish," the often amusing Chinese-English hybrid that hit the headlines ahead of the Beijing games.
"Global English has been driven by three notable events during the course of 2008: the US Presidential Election, the financial tsunami, and the Beijing Olympics," said Paul JJ Payack, president of The Global Language Monitor.
He said "financial tsunami" was the top phrase of the year followed by "global warming" and Obama's "Yes, We Can," while among the top 10 political names in the media in 2008 were Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Hillary Clinton.
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(Agencies)
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2008年度熱詞榜于本周一出爐，在金融風暴席卷美國和奧巴馬當選美國歷史上首位非洲裔總統的形勢之下，““援助（bailout）”和“改變（change）當之無愧地登上熱詞榜之首。
美國權威辭書出版機構梅里亞姆?韋伯斯特公司稱，“baillout”（意為財政救援）是今年短時間內查詢頻率最高的詞語。
韋氏公司總部位于馬薩諸塞州。總裁約翰?莫斯稱，今年“bailout”一詞在與總統選舉和財政政策有關的討論中“頻頻出現，所以當選年度詞匯并不意外。
莫斯稱，今年的總統大選還催生了 “vet（審查評估）”、“bipartisan（兩黨連立）”、“misogyny（厭女）”、及用來形容共和黨兩位候選人的“maverick（標新立異者）”等一系列熱詞，其中“vet”高居排行榜第二位。
此外，排在前十名的還有一個與時局有關的詞就是socialism（社會主義）。
躋身前十名的其它幾個詞還包括：trepidation（恐慌）、precipice（懸崖；險境）、rogue（無賴；詐騙）和turmoil（騷亂）。
位于美國得克薩斯州的全球語言監測機構對媒體和網絡用詞開展的一項獨立調查也發現了類似趨勢，調查結果顯示，“change（該變）”為今年媒體和網絡上出現頻率最高的詞，是美國總統大選催生出的最熱門的政治流行詞。
全球語言監測機構采用一種運算法對媒體和網絡上出現的詞匯進行了跟蹤統計，據其介紹，如果位居第二的“bailout”一詞于9月中旬之前就出現在媒體上，那么它就有可能位居榜首。
奧巴馬贏得大選在全球引發的Obamania（“奧巴馬熱”）名列第三，“greenwashing（“漂綠”）”、“surge（增長）”、“derivative（衍生產品）”、“subprime（次貸）”和“forclosure（止贖權）”位列其后。
排在這份榜單前十位的詞語還包括：“Phelpsian( 前所未有的勝利)”，主要形容美國游泳名將菲爾普斯在北京奧運會上獨攬八枚金牌的輝煌戰績。；以及“Chinglish（中式英語）”，指的令人啼笑皆非的“中國式”英語，在北京奧運會之前它成為報紙的頭條新聞。
全球語言監測機構主席保羅?帕亞克說：“今年有三件大事推進了英語全球化：美國總統大選、金融危機和北京奧運會。”
他說，“financial tsunami（金融海嘯）”是今年最熱門的短語，“global warming（全球變暖）”和奧巴馬的口號“Yes, we can.（我們能做到！）”位居其后。此外，奧巴馬、布什和希拉里登上今年的媒體十大政界名人排行榜。
（實習生許雅寧 英語點津姍姍編輯）
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