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。出版牛津英文辭典、全世界第二古老的學術出版社牛津大學出版社，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，就像我們這些已過特定年齡的人士，它正試著獲得一些。「魅」是Ｚ世代（或阿爾法世代？）的流行用語，意思是「風格、魅力或吸引力」或「吸引戀人或性伴侶的能力」，它獲選為牛津2023年度代表字，擊敗一眾競爭對手，包括情境式戀愛、提示詞、反影響力以及（沒錯）泰勒絲粉。

“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.”

據牛津，「魅」的相關紀錄最早出現於2022年，但6月突然爆紅，原因是演員湯姆霍蘭德在一場BuzzFeed專訪中說：「我根本沒魅。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.

這催生了一股迷因熱，據牛津資料，該字的整體使用量在過去一年內激增約15倍。牛津辭典部門牛津語言主任格拉斯沃說，今年的代表字反映社群平台如何急遽加快語言演變速度，以及這個詞本身就很有…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.

他說：「它能從社群平台小眾用語進入主流的原因之一是，它唸起來很好玩」。

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據其語料庫的使用資料而來，該語料庫從英語系國家新聞來源蒐集超過220億個詞彙且不斷更新。根據牛津，這項選拔賽旨在「反映過去一年來的思潮、心情或關注的事物」。

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，民眾被邀請針對四組一對一主題組合表達想法，淘汰決選名單中的一半選手。（牛津說約3萬人投票。）之後再由牛津團隊做最終選擇。

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”).

其中一個組合是「泰勒絲粉」對決「反影響力」，與名人文化有關。其他組合則反映了人格特質（「魅」對決「米色旗」，後者指個性無趣的伴侶）、變遷世界（「提示詞」對決「熱芎」）以及情感關係（「擬社會互動」對決「情境式戀愛」）。

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.”

格拉斯沃猜測，冠軍賽將由「泰勒絲粉」對決「魅」，他沒猜錯。比賽最終是由這兩個詞彙競爭，但在那之前，「反影響力」（促使他人不買特定商品的行為，或更廣義地使人減少消費） 曾奮力一搏，試圖扳倒「泰勒絲粉」。

追溯愛爾蘭挺巴勒斯坦人民的根源

Under the light drizzle of a Tuesday morning last month, Ríonach Ní Néill and a group of friends set up a small platform in front of the U.S. Embassy in Dublin.

上個月，一個下著綿綿細雨的周二早晨，李歐娜赫．尼尼爾和一群朋友在美國駐都柏林大使館前設置了一個小平台。

Then they took out a stack of papers. For the next 11 1/2 hours, Ní Néill and others took turns reading out thousands of names — each one a person killed since Israel started bombarding the Gaza Strip in the war, according to a list released by health authorities in Gaza.

接著，他們拿出一疊紙。之後的十一個半小時，尼尼爾和其他人輪流朗誦上千個名字，據加薩衛生部所發布的名單，每一個名字都屬於以色列開始轟炸加薩走廊後，於戰爭期間死去的人們。

It was an attempt to convey the enormity of the loss of life, she said.

她說，他們試圖表達逝去性命之多。

In Ireland, support for Palestinian civilians runs deep, rooted in what many see as a shared history of British colonialism and the experience of a seemingly intractable and traumatic conflict, which in Ireland’s case came to a close with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

在愛爾蘭，對巴勒斯坦平民的支持根深柢固，根植於許多人所認為兩國共享的歷史經驗，包括都曾受英國殖民統治，以及分別經歷一場貌似難解且創傷性的衝突，只是在愛爾蘭的例子中，衝突最終以1998年的耶穌受難日協議畫下句點。

Since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7 that killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities, and the subsequent bombardment of Gaza, Ireland has emerged as something of an outlier in Europe for its stance on the conflict.

哈瑪斯十月七日對以色列發動攻擊、導致以色列官方所聲稱約1200人喪命，以及後續加薩遭轟炸以來，愛爾蘭在以巴衝突中的立場使其在歐洲像個異類。

While condemning the Hamas atrocities, lawmakers across Ireland’s political spectrum were among the first in Europe to call for the protection of Palestinian civilians and denounce the scale of Israel’s response, which has left more than 15,000 people dead, according to health officials in Gaza — a rate of casualties with few precedents in the 21st century.

橫跨各政治立場的愛爾蘭議員除了譴責哈瑪斯暴行，也是首批呼籲保護巴勒斯坦平民、譴責以色列回擊力度的歐洲議員之一。根據加薩衛生部，以色列的攻擊已導致逾一萬五千人喪命，傷亡率在21世紀罕見前例。

Last month, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said he strongly believed that Israel had the right to defend itself, but that what was unfolding in Gaza “resembles something approaching revenge.”

愛爾蘭總理瓦拉德卡上個月表示，他深信以色列有自衛權，但加薩正在發生的事情「已近似於復仇」。

Those views are mainstream in Ireland. In a poll published last month, about 71% of respondents classified Israel’s response as “disproportionately severe.” About 65% also said that Hamas should be officially proscribed as a terrorist organization. Tens of thousands have taken part in weekly protests calling for an end to Israeli attacks on Gaza.

這在愛爾蘭是主流觀點。上個月發布的一份民調顯示，約71%受訪者認為以色列的回應「嚴厲到不成比例」。也有約65%受訪者說，應正式宣告哈瑪斯為恐怖組織。數以萬計民眾參加每周舉行的示威，要求以色列停止攻擊加薩。

Jane Ohlmeyer, a history professor at Trinity College Dublin and author of “Making Empire: Ireland, Imperialism and the Early Modern World,” said the country’s status as a former British colony had “undoubtedly shaped how people from Ireland engage with post-colonial conflicts.”

都柏林「三一學院」歷史教授、《製造帝國：愛爾蘭、帝國主義及早期現代世界》作者珍．歐麥爾說，愛爾蘭的前英國殖民地身分「無疑形塑了愛爾蘭人參與後殖民衝突的方式」。