紐時賞析／牛津年度代表字出爐 「魅」掀起迷因熱

牛津辞典选出rizz为2023年度代表字。（美联社）

Oxford’s 2023 Word of the Year Is … ‘Rizz’

牛津2023年度代表字是…「魅」

It’s official. Oxford University Press, the world’s second-oldest academic press and publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary, has rizz.

正式公布了。出版牛津英文辞典、全世界第二古老的学术出版社牛津大学出版社，有魅。

Or at least, like the rest of us over a certain age, it’s trying to get some. “Rizz” — Gen Z (or is it Gen Alpha?) slang for “style, charm or attractiveness,” or “the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner” — has been named as Oxford’s 2023 Word of the Year, beating out contenders including situationship, prompt, de-influencing and (yes) Swiftie.

或至少，就像我们这些已过特定年龄的人士，它正试着获得一些。「魅」是Ｚ世代（或阿尔法世代？）的流行用语，意思是「风格、魅力或吸引力」或「吸引恋人或性伴侣的能力」，它获选为牛津2023年度代表字，击败一众竞争对手，包括情境式恋爱、提示词、反影响力以及（没错）泰勒丝粉。

“Rizz” was first recorded in 2022, according to Oxford. But it went viral in June, after actor Tom Holland, in an interview with BuzzFeed, said: “I have no rizz whatsoever. I have limited rizz.”

据牛津，「魅」的相关纪录最早出现于2022年，但6月突然爆红，原因是演员汤姆霍兰德在一场BuzzFeed专访中说：「我根本没魅。我魅有限」。

That spawned a crush of memes, as overall usage surged by a factor of about 15 over the previous year, according to Oxford’s data. Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages, the dictionary division, said this year’s choice reflects the way social media has increased the pace of language change exponentially. Plus, he said, the word simply has … rizz.

这催生了一股迷因热，据牛津资料，该字的整体使用量在过去一年内激增约15倍。牛津辞典部门牛津语言主任格拉斯沃说，今年的代表字反映社群平台如何急遽加快语言演变速度，以及这个词本身就很有…魅。

“One of the reasons it’s moving from being a niche social media phrase into the mainstream is, it’s just fun to say,” he said.

他说：「它能从社群平台小众用语进入主流的原因之一是，它念起来很好玩」。

Oxford’s Word of the Year is based on usage evidence drawn from its continually updated corpus of more than 22 billion words, gathered from news sources across the English-speaking world. The selection, according to Oxford, is meant “to reflect the ethos, mood or preoccupations” of the preceding year.

牛津年度代表字是根据其语料库的使用资料而来，该语料库从英语系国家新闻来源搜集超过220亿个词汇且不断更新。根据牛津，这项选拔赛旨在「反映过去一年来的思潮、心情或关注的事物」。

This year, the public was invited to cut the shortlist list in half by weighing in on four head-to-head thematic pairings. (Some 30,000 people voted, Oxford said.) Oxford’s team then made the final selection.

今年，民众被邀请针对四组一对一主题组合表达想法，淘汰决选名单中的一半选手。（牛津说约3万人投票。）之后再由牛津团队做最终选择。

One pairing, “Swiftie” vs. “de-influencing,” related to celebrity culture. Others reflected personal characteristics (“rizz” vs. “beige flag,” a characteristic suggesting a partner is boring), the changing world (“prompt” vs. “heat dome”) and relationships (“parasocial” vs. “situationship”).

其中一个组合是「泰勒丝粉」对决「反影响力」，与名人文化有关。其他组合则反映了人格特质（「魅」对决「米色旗」，后者指个性无趣的伴侣）、变迁世界（「提示词」对决「热芎」）以及情感关系（「拟社会互动」对决「情境式恋爱」）。

Grathwohl guessed, correctly, that the contest would ultimately come down to “Swiftie" vs. “rizz.” Which it did, but only after “de-influencing” (the practice of discouraging people from buying particular products, or reducing their consumption more generally) made a strong run at knocking out “Swiftie.”

格拉斯沃猜测，冠军赛将由「泰勒丝粉」对决「魅」，他没猜错。比赛最终是由这两个词汇竞争，但在那之前，「反影响力」（促使他人不买特定商品的行为，或更广义地使人减少消费） 曾奋力一搏，试图扳倒「泰勒丝粉」。

文／Jennifer Schuessler 译／陈晓慈