New words in English

Alice: Hello! I’m Alice and this is 6 Minute English…. I’m joined today by
Rob. Hi Rob.
Rob: Hello Alice.
Alice: Today we’re talking about some of the new words which have entered
the English language recently.
Rob: These are words which have been added to the Oxford¹ Dictionary of
English this year.
Alice: There are quite a few but we thought we’d pick some which you might
enjoy using. But first – a question – Rob can you guess how many new
words or phrases were added in this latest edition? Is it: 100, 2,000 or
10,000.
Rob: I would think that there are thousands of new words every year but not
all of them are added to the dictionary. Let me have a think about it.
Alice: I’ll let you know at the end of the programme, but first let’s hear from
Catherine Sommes from the Oxford English Dictionary talking about
how they choose which new words will make it into the new edition.
Extract 1:
What we can do – we’ve got software tools that actually show how words are being used,
how widely they’re being used, so it’s not just a question of numbers, it’s a question of
different places it’s being used so everywhere from magazines, to newspapers to
chatrooms.
Alice: So the company have software tools which are able to monitor new
words, how and when they are used.
Rob: Catherine Sommes says it’s not just a question of numbers – they
don’t just measure how often a new word is used
Alice: And she uses that phrase again. It’s a question of different places –
they also look at the different places where the word is used – for
example she says in magazines, newspapers and chatrooms.
Rob: So a word must be used in a variety of places.
Alice: That’s right. In order to make it into the dictionary it can’t just be
jargon² – words which are specific to particular fields of interest.
Many of the new words this year come from social networking. Here’s
Catherine Sommes again to explain:
Extract 2
Social networking as well is so huge – so we’re getting words in the dictionary now like
de-friend, or un-friend which means take somebody off your friend list on a social
networking site such as Facebook. We’re seeing lots of words like that come into the
language now.
Alice: Rob have you heard the words ‘de-friend’, or ‘un-friend’?
Rob: I’ve never used them myself but I know what they mean!
Alice: If you remove someone from your friend list on social
networking sites you might de-friend them, or un-friend them. It’s
easy to make a new word just using the prefix³ de- and un- but it does
sound a bit clumsy!
Rob: How about blogging?
Alice: Blogging has been in the dictionary for a while – but what about
micro-blogging? That’s a blog which is really small – it could just be
a sentence, a quick video-link or an image.
Rob: Now, Alice, Do you know what a dictionary attack is?
Alice: No.
Rob: It’s an attempt to find out your secret computer password by trying
an enormous number of words which might unlock it.
Alice: That sounds nasty! And so do some of the new words and phrases
which come from talking about the problems in the world’s economy.
Can you explain what toxic⁴ debt is Rob?
Rob: I’ll try! It’s the phrase used to describe a class of assets which were
once valuable – mortgages or financial products – which are now
worthless.
Alice: Pretty good! A toxic debt can be worthless or at least have a reduced
value which is hard to find out. Here’s another one we’ve heard quite
a lot over the last couple of years. Quantitative⁵ easing. That’s when
governments put new money into the national money supply to ease
pressure on the economy.
Shall we have something more entertaining? My favourite new word is
this one:
Extract 3: Vuvuzela
Rob: Aha – that’s probably what the year 2010 will be remembered for. The
hum of the vuvuzela at the Football World Cup in South Africa.
Alice: So Rob have you thought about the answer to my question at the
beginning of the programme. How many new words do you think were
added to the dictionary this year?
Was it 100, 2000, or 10,000?
Rob: I think 100 is too little, and 10,000 is too many. So I’m going for 2000.
Alice: Well done! It’s actually slightly more than 2000 new words and
phrases in this year’s edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Shall we hear some of them again?
Rob: Yes of course. And here’s some of the other language we heard in the
programme:
edition
software-tools
a question of
chatrooms
jargon
social networking
de-friend, un-friend
micro-blogging
dictionary attack
toxic debt
quantitative easing
vuvuzela
And we’ve got time to listen to Catherine Sommes from the Oxford
Dictionary of English talking about the 2010 edition again:
Extracts 1 and 2 (repeated)
Alice: Well that’s all we’ve got time for today. Thanks for joining us and see
you next time. Bye!（本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑）

1 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

2 jargon   

n.术语，行话

参考例句：

• They will not hear critics with their horrible jargon.他们不愿意听到评论家们那些可怕的行话。
• It is important not to be overawed by the mathematical jargon.要紧的是不要被数学的术语所吓倒.

3 prefix   

n.前缀；vt.加…作为前缀；置于前面

参考例句：

• We prefix "Mr."to a man's name.我们在男士的姓名前加“先生”。
• In the word "unimportant ","un-" is a prefix.在单词“unimportant”中“un”是前缀。

4 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

5 quantitative   

adj.数量的，定量的

参考例句：

• He said it was only a quantitative difference.他说这仅仅是数量上的差别。
• We need to do some quantitative analysis of the drugs.我们对药物要进行定量分析。