2019年经济学人 词汇意义的变化(3)

 

Sometimes they succeed. In 2012 Julia Gillard, Australia’s prime minister, gave her renowned¹ “misogyny speech”, lambasting her rival Tony Abbott for referring to Ms Gillard “making an honest woman of herself”, and for posing by a sign reading “ditch the witch”. Traditionalists pounced²; Mr Abbott didn’t hate all women, they said, so Ms Gillard obviously didn’t know what misogyny meant. In response, Macquarie, an Australian dictionary publisher, expanded its definition of the word to include “entrenched prejudice against women”.

有时确实成功地这样做了。2012年，澳大利亚总理朱莉娅?吉拉德发表了著名的“厌女演讲”，痛斥竞争对手托尼?阿博特称吉拉德“让自己成为一个诚实的女人”，并在一个写着“抛弃女巫”的标牌前摆造型。传统主义者出击了；他们称艾伯特并不憎恨所有女性，所以吉拉德显然不知道厌女症是什么意思。作为回应，澳大利亚词典出版商麦格理将这个词的定义扩大到“对女性根深蒂固的偏见”。

There are other ways to wage a social struggle on the lexical front. Inventing a word is one; Ms Manne has written about “himpathy”, which she uses to describe outbreaks of disproportionate concern for the future of a man accused of harassment³, rape⁴ or other violence towards women. The term is pointed⁵ and memorable⁶, and is spreading online.

还有其他方法可以在词汇方面发动社会斗争。发明一个词就是其中之一；曼恩曾写过一篇关于“himpathy”的文章，她用这个词来描述对一名被控骚扰、强奸或其他针对女性的暴力行为的男子的未来爆发的过分担忧。这个词很有针对性，令人难忘，并且正在网上传播。

Repurposing an existing word is harder; the inertia⁷ of the older meaning must be overcome. But this can be done, as (more intentionally⁸ than Ms Gillard) theorists and activists⁹ managed with “queer”. Whether inventing or repurposing words, in refusing to kowtow to inherited concepts Ms Manne is emulating¹⁰ Friedrich Nietzsche, who said that philosophers “must no longer accept concepts as a gift, nor merely purify and polish them, but first make and create them, present them and make them convincing”. Sound argument is needed to persuade other philosophers of such intellectual leaps; to enlist¹¹ the wider world, a compelling vocabulary is vital.

重新定义一个现有的单词更加困难；必须克服使用其旧意义的习惯。但这是可以做到的，正如(比吉拉德更有意为之)理论家和活动家成功使用了“queer（同性恋者）”一词。无论是发明词汇还是重新使用词汇，曼恩拒绝向继承下来的概念低头，都是在效仿弗里德里希?尼采，尼采认为哲学家“不能再把概念当作礼物来接受，也不能再仅仅净化和润色它们，但首先要制作并创造它们，呈现它们，让它们令人信服。”要说服其他哲学家实现这种思想上的飞跃，需要有充分的论据；要争取更广泛的世界，一个引人注目的词汇是至关重要的。

1 renowned   

adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的

参考例句：

• He is one of the world's renowned writers.他是世界上知名的作家之一。
• She is renowned for her advocacy of human rights.她以提倡人权而闻名。

2 pounced   

v.突然袭击( pounce的过去式和过去分词 )；猛扑；一眼看出；抓住机会（进行抨击）

参考例句：

• As soon as I opened my mouth, the teacher pounced on me. 我一张嘴就被老师抓住呵斥了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The police pounced upon the thief. 警察向小偷扑了过去。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

4 rape   

n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸

参考例句：

• The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
• He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。

5 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

6 memorable   

adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的

参考例句：

• This was indeed the most memorable day of my life.这的确是我一生中最值得怀念的日子。
• The veteran soldier has fought many memorable battles.这个老兵参加过许多难忘的战斗。

7 inertia   

adj.惰性，惯性，懒惰，迟钝

参考例句：

• We had a feeling of inertia in the afternoon.下午我们感觉很懒。
• Inertia carried the plane onto the ground.飞机靠惯性着陆。

8 intentionally   

ad.故意地，有意地

参考例句：

• I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
• The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。

9 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 emulating   

v.与…竞争( emulate的现在分词 )；努力赶上；计算机程序等仿真；模仿

参考例句：

• The possibilities of producing something entirely new by emulating nature's very wide crosses are enticing. 用自然界的非常广泛的杂交方法创造出全新植物种的可能性是诱人的。 来自辞典例句
• The human emulating this archetypal patterning will be quite the accomplished businessperson. 这类原型模式者会是一个很成功的商人。 来自互联网

11 enlist   

vt.谋取(支持等)，赢得；征募；vi.入伍

参考例句：

• They come here to enlist men for the army.他们来这儿是为了召兵。
• The conference will make further efforts to enlist the support of the international community for their just struggle. 会议必将进一步动员国际社会，支持他们的正义斗争。