惊呆！52个字母组成的单词当选年度词

 　　Bundespraesidentenstichwahlwiederholungsverschiebung. It has a ring to it, doesn’t it? Try it out for yourself: Bundespraesidentenstichwahlwiederholungsverschiebung. To an English speaker, it may seem like a meaningless, even endless assortment¹ of letters, but it turns out that it’s an award-winning German word. As the Associated Press reports, a survey of 10,000 Austrians has chosen the lengthy² noun as its word of the year.

　　Bundespraesidentenstichwahlwiederholungsverschiebung，听上去像是什么有趣的东西，不是吗?你可以试着自己念一遍：Bundes/praesidenten/stichwahl/wiederholungs/verschiebung。对于说英语(或是其他语言)的人来说，它似乎是段毫无意义无穷无尽的字母组合，但事实证明它却是个获奖的重要德语词。美联社报道，一项有上万奥地利人参与的调查将这个超长的名词选作了年度热词。

　　Roughly translated, the word means “postponement³ of the repeat runoff of the presidential election.” The super-long word was coined this year in response to a similarly drawn-out presidential election in Austria.

　　大致翻译过来，这个词的意思是“联邦总统选举再选的推迟。”这个词在今年被生造出来以描述奥地利遭遇的与美国类似的胶着选举。

　　In May, Austrians elected Alexander Van der Bellen to the presidency⁴ in May. But Van der Bellen’s victory was a narrow one, and the Freedom Party of Austria (FP?), the country’s far-right party, contested the results and claimed that voting irregularities warranted a new election. The repeat runoff was due to go ahead on October 2, but then something sticky happened. As The Guardian’s Kate Connolly reports, the government requested a postponement of the repeat runoff when issues with the glue used to seal mail-in ballots⁵ were discovered. The election was postponed⁶ and a new term was born.

　　在五月份，奥地利人将Alexander Van der Bellen选为下一届总统。但Van der Bellen仅是险胜，而奥地利自由党，奥地利的极右翼政党对这个结果提出抗议，并声称由于投票过程中的不规范行为，重新选举具有了正当理由。这次重选理应在十月二日进行，但又有些棘手的事情发生了。正如《卫报》的Kate Connolly报道中所说，政府又要求推迟这次重选，因为他们发现拿来密封邮寄选票的胶水出了问题。随着选举的推迟，又一个政治术语诞生了。

　　The election finally went forward with higher turnout. This time, the far-right party was rejected by Austrian voters by an even wider margin⁷. The events were watched with amusement and exhaustion⁸ by Austrians. As the jury of experts who judged the contest told the Austrian paper Der Standard (in German), it is “both an expressive⁹ and ironic¹⁰ commentary [on] the political events of the year.”

　　这场选举最终获得了更高的投票率。这次，极右政党以更大的差距被奥地利选民拒之门外。奥地利人最终以娱乐却又疲惫的心情见证了这次事件。正如对这次抗议做出审判的专家陪审团告诉奥地利媒体《标准报》(Der Standard)，这个词是对这场年度政治事件不仅生动而且极具讽刺意味的评论。

　　If you wanted to save a letter, you could spell Bundespraesidentenstichwahlwiederholungsverschiebung with an umlaut instead, making Bundespr?sidentenstichwahlwiederholungsverschiebung. Those little symbols, which add an e to a vowel¹¹, are another example of how the German language lets speakers combine more than one thing. Or you could just marvel¹² at how much longer it is than the longest word in the English language—pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.

　　如果你想少打一个字母，你也可以把它拼成Bundespr?sidentenstichwahlwiederholungsverschiebung，用加了变音符的?代替ae。这两个小点不仅可以给元音变音，也是德语可以由使用者自由组合的又一例证。或者你也可以试着弄清它比起最长的英语词汇——pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis，要长多少。

1 assortment   

n.分类，各色俱备之物，聚集

参考例句：

• This shop has a good assortment of goods to choose from.该店各色货物俱全，任君选择。
• She was wearing an odd assortment of clothes.她穿着奇装异服。

2 lengthy   

adj.漫长的，冗长的

参考例句：

• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。
• The professor wrote a lengthy book on Napoleon.教授写了一部有关拿破仑的巨著。

3 postponement   

n.推迟

参考例句：

• He compounded with his creditors for a postponement of payment. 他与债权人达成协议延期付款。
• Rain caused the postponement of several race-meetings. 几次赛马大会因雨延期。

4 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

5 ballots   

n.投票表决( ballot的名词复数 )；选举；选票；投票总数v.（使）投票表决( ballot的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• They're counting the ballots. 他们正在计算选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The news of rigged ballots has rubbed off much of the shine of their election victory. 他们操纵选票的消息使他们在选举中获得的胜利大为减色。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 postponed   

vt.& vi.延期，缓办，（使）延迟vt.把…放在次要地位；[语]把…放在后面（或句尾）vi.（疟疾等）延缓发作（或复发）

参考例句：

• The trial was postponed indefinitely. 审讯无限期延迟。
• The game has already been postponed three times. 这场比赛已经三度延期了。

7 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

8 exhaustion   

n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述

参考例句：

• She slept the sleep of exhaustion.她因疲劳而酣睡。
• His exhaustion was obvious when he fell asleep standing.他站着睡着了，显然是太累了。

9 expressive   

adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的

参考例句：

• Black English can be more expressive than standard English.黑人所使用的英语可能比正式英语更有表现力。
• He had a mobile,expressive,animated face.他有一张多变的，富于表情的，生动活泼的脸。

10 ironic   

adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的

参考例句：

• That is a summary and ironic end.那是一个具有概括性和讽刺意味的结局。
• People used to call me Mr Popularity at high school,but they were being ironic.人们中学时常把我称作“万人迷先生”，但他们是在挖苦我。

11 vowel   

n.元音；元音字母

参考例句：

• A long vowel is a long sound as in the word"shoe ".长元音即如“shoe” 一词中的长音。
• The vowel in words like 'my' and 'thigh' is not very difficult.单词my和thigh中的元音并不难发。

12 marvel   

vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事

参考例句：

• The robot is a marvel of modern engineering.机器人是现代工程技术的奇迹。
• The operation was a marvel of medical skill.这次手术是医术上的一个奇迹。